


Because Of You

by Cami_writings



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Hosie, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:08:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24204166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cami_writings/pseuds/Cami_writings
Summary: Hope Mikaelson is a 16 years old trybrid, the only one of her kind. Everything goes normally, as it can be, in her life until a shared prophecy dream with Josette Saltzman startles her. Deaths, love, pain, and darkness are promised to come. What does it mean? Why did they both have the same dream? Hope decides to investigate for herself since no one seems to want to help her. That and dealing with the normal life of a supernatural teenager at the Salvatore Boarding School.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 21
Kudos: 152





	1. Chapter 1

The light of the sun lightened my room early on a Monday morning waking me up. Everything seems peaceful at school lately. I get up from bed, change into my blue colored plaid skirt and long sleeves button-up shirt, pick up a dark blue tie and wrap it around my collar and pull my red hair into a messy bun. My stomach growls and I go downstairs ten minutes early, so I can have breakfast calmly before classes begin.

As I make my way down, I notice that the Saltzman twins are already at their usual spot, next to them are MG and Kaleb chatting about comic books. Josie, the brunette twin, glances over at me. Lizzie, the tall, blond twin eyes meet mine before she turns to her friends saying something that makes everyone laugh.

I am used to being teased by Elizabeth Saltzman, who apparently blames me for her miserable existence. We tend to pick on each other quite often, which is amusing at times. I choose to sit far from them, as usual, and from the distance I see a curled dark-haired girl complaining about something.

"Seriously what is the point in all of it?" she growls loudly.

"Jeez P, isn’t it too early to complain?" I tease.

"Shut up." she rolls her eyes at me as I sit next to her. Penelope Park and I have been friends for ages. Ever since she arrived at the school. We are known as the evil click around here for no good reason, well mostly bc of P, but we actually kind of enjoy it. “What took you so long?”

The dining room is filled with murmur just like every other morning. Silver hitting the plates and gossips all around. Something didn't feel right though, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Yet.

As we all walk to the morning assembly, that happens once a week, Dr. Saltzman, the headmaster, and the twin's father, stands at the podium in the front of the big room with huge windows that are now filled with chairs to fit all the students, talking to a blond girl dressed in old jeans and a weird-looking white shirt with puffed sleeves. 

As everyone takes their seats, the mic echoes through the room "Good morning everyone. This is Miss Jade Montgomery. She will be joining us this semester and hopefully all year. Please be nice and welcoming as we have been to each one of you. Please take a seat, Miss Montgomery" he added.

The blond girl gracefully walks to an empty chair near the Saltzman's, who warmly welcome her.

"Now, a friendly reminder, do not forget the competition we have on Saturday, we will be playing, for the first time, against a supernatural school from England. We will have practices during the week for the multiple challenges." He says enthusiastically. “This year, 7 of you will compete. Josette Saltzman, Elizabeth Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson, Milton Greasley, Kaleb Hawkins, Rafael Waithe, and Penelope Park.” Everyone cheers but the 7 of us. "Now off to your classes please." He ends it waving and smiling.

"This competition is ours, I'm telling you" Kaleb, a vampire who is the quarterback of our wickery team says pumped.

"We will end them for sure. We have a strong team this year" Milton Greasley replies punching the air as he walks.

"We always lose anyways tho" Josie complains "I hated to compete last year!" 

"Don't worry dear sister. I won't let them win, not this time" Lizzie proclaimed. As they pass through me Lizzie throws me a sharp look "I hope you don't screw it up, Mikaelson." she hisses.

I let a little chuckle escape "What do you mean by that Saltzman? You were the one who failed last time if I recall" I argue back. Penelope chuckles behind me.

"Oh I'm gonna tell you what I mean. You-" 

"Girls!" Dr. Saltzman cuts the arguing making everyone look at him "please behave. No arguing. Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?" He asks politely. I roll my eyes, grab my bag, and head to class.

My first class of the day is charms taught by Mr. Williams. I sit at my usual spot and as the bell rings everyone takes their seats and Mr. Williams walks in. He has his usual yellow polo shirt which contrasts with his brown skin and a pair of jeans.

"Good morning class" he seems awfully excited. "I have quite a day prepared for you today. You'll be working on pairs, and no you cannot choose," everybody complains "I will be choosing with this" he raises what seems to be a magical blue bag "now as I call the names, please exchange your seats!"

The class starts to get loud with conversation and Mr. Williams knocks on the table "quiet down. Quiet down" he sits at the edge of the table and starts selecting names "Maya Machado and… Penelope Park." some students start whistling them which makes Penelope roll her eyes. Everyone knows they hook up occasionally, but they pretend no one knows. "Josie Saltzman and Miss Jade Montgomery." Everyone looks around confused. 

“Is she even in this class? I mean the girl just arrived.” I say to Penelope with more emotion than I first intended and she gives me a weird look. The two of them pair up and roll my eyes involuntarily. 

"Lizzie Saltzman and… this will be interesting, baby mix three"

"No way!" Lizzie snaps "uh-uh… try again!"

"Get over yourself Lizzie!" I say in response.

"Shut up Mikaelson!" She crosses her arms with a frown.

Mr. William divides the rest of the class and each pair has to work on a specific charm, also selected by him. Funny enough Lizzie and I get a love charm.

"Well this is perfect! You are almost enjoying it" she cries.

"I do like your misery" I laugh. "It's just one class. You can do it… that is if you can turn down the drama queen for the next hour". Lizzie smiles fakely, which satisfies me.

The teacher advised us to search for the meaning of the words, the origin of the spell, how to write it correctly, and what is a spell that is similar but has a different outcome. We start working on the charm, looking in books and class notes trying to find its effect and the perfect pronunciation. The class is taken over by low parallel chats between every pair. Mr. Williams is sitting on his chair reading a book about charms that looks older than it should.

"Here" I say and Lizzie turns to face me "phesmatus is lucas adoray" I point to the book.

"Not bad.." she suffers to say "I found what it’s for exactly. And what it can be mistaken for"

"Were you planning to tell me?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yes. Eventually" she mumbles.

"Lizzie we are supposed to work together" I remind her.

"Fine Hope. Have it your way" she surrenders rolling her eyes. I shake my head.

"Grab a paper. Let’s write it down so we can be done with this shall we?"

I tell her what to write and she writes it down with her perfect calligraphy, which is a relief for me because mine is all messy and sloppy.

The bell rings ending the class, everyone delivers their paperwork as Mr. William gives his final announcements "please practice the spells. On next class we will be casting it, count that as homework. You may go!" 

Everyone leaves the class except for me, Lizzie, Josie, and the new girl. I dare to gaze towards the pair in the back. Josie is laughing with something the girl said. I sigh and just leave the room followed by Lizzie.

"Listen..." she says, almost regretting it immediately. I turn to look at her "it wasn’t that bad working with you"

"Is that a…. Compliment?" I say with a funny look in my face.

"No! Never!" She assures "just… ugh don’t ruin it Hope." And with that she leaves.

I don't know exactly why me and the twins never got along. We practically grew together after my parents passed and I came to the school, maybe that’s why. We were raised together and I'm the one who never gets along with the other two, or so it seems. Josie will do anything for Lizzie, who sometimes takes advantage of that, which makes me mad and has occasioned many of our fights. Josie is the sweet among us, the one who always wants to make those around her happy, despite her own happiness. Lizzie is explosive and manipulative, much like myself I hate to admit.

I head on to the next class, history taught by Dr. Saltzman. It’s actually one of my favorite classes, mostly because Lizzie isn’t in it, but Josie is and we have this little competition going on of who answers most questions correctly and who gets better grades. It’s quite fun actually. 

As everyone goes in I spot Josie walking in with the new girl, Jade. They walk and laugh together for a second Josie’s look locks with mine and her laugh dies down to a simple smile. I give her a warm smile back. Dr. S walks in right after them telling everyone to sit down.

“Alright everyone, page 345 please. Battle of Willow Creek” noises of paper turning take over the room “We’ve been at this for a while now. What about some pop quiz?” everyone complains in between their breaths. 

I have the impulse to give a pointed look at Josie and as I do she is already looking at me. With that we know the competition is on. 

“Ok, When did the battle happen?” he asks

“1865” Josie says with her hand raised. 

“Correct. How many casualties?”

“346!” I say with all my confidence “Unless you count the local civilians, of course!”

“Nice job Hope!” he says “How many civilians?”

“27” Josie and I say at the same time and look at each other.

“That’s correct, again.” he says amused “maybe you two should let someone else answer for a change.” he points out “What’s the name of the Church in which the civilians were burned?” Jo and I raise hands.

“Fell’s Church” an unknown voice comes from the back of the class and everyone turns to follow it. 

“Correct Miss Montgomery. Familiar with the story?” Dr. S asks curiously.

“Slightly. One of my great grandparents was supposed to be in that church. Somehow she had help and was never caught” Jade explains a little intimidated by all the looks pointed at her.

Whispers take over the room and Dr. S silences us all. Dr. S then tells us about the supernatural part of it all. How the founding families of Mystic Falls were searching for unwanted guests and used a compass to find vampires. The class pretty much goes on as usual until the bell signals the end of it. As I exit the room Penelope bumps into me making me drop my books.

“Damn it P!” I say while catching my stuff from the floor “What’s the rush?”

“Why are you all grumpy? Listen. The seniors will throw a party tonight at the Old Mill. We’re going right?” she sounds overly excited.

“Would not miss it!” I dully reply and we go on our way to the dining room to catch lunch.

__

The cold wind brings a smell of burning wood and alcohol at the Old Mill later that day. There are way more people than it should’ve been but it doesn’t seem to be a problem at all. The wolves are all reunited drinking something from a red bottle in one corner as the vampires take over the surroundings of the fireplace with some of the witches. 

Most people around us are known faces since I came to this school when I was 7 years old. These people most likely became my family over the years and yet I feel like I’m not the one with most friends. I have a fame of being a loner and willingly alienating myself from the world. 

The murmur is almost as loud as the music coming from the stereo inside the house, which makes it hard to keep up with my thoughts. People are dancing and drinking all around the place. Penelope and I sight each other as she starts moving towards me through the crowd with two cups in her hand. One has a blue liquid and the other has something purple. 

“Here you go” she hands me the purple drink.

“Are you trying to get me drunk, Park?” I ask with a smile as I get the cup from her hand.

“I do know for a fact that drunk Hope Mikaelson is the best person in this place” we both laugh, cheer and take a sip of our drinks.

“That’s so not happening tonight” I say firmly and distract myself looking around.

It has happened once or twice. Penelope managed to get me drunk without me noticing and some say I’m a really fun and talkative person. After the last time when she made me kiss Rafael Waithe in front of a girl who she knew was crushing on him and dance on top of a table in front of everyone, I promised myself I would not let her do it again. After all, I have a reputation to uphold.

“Looking for someone, are we?” Penelope teases me sipping her drink.

“What? No. I’m just… looking.” I look at her trying not to look guilty “Let’s dance?” we both walk to the dancing floor where many people have already taken over.

Not long after that most people are already drunk and hooking up behind trees, it’s quite more empty now. From the distance I see a more familiar face. Josie is walking through the crowd staggering and bumping into people on the way. She reaches me and sits down by my side.

“So this is why you don’t come to parties much huh?” she muttered at me

“uh, what do you mean?” I lean my head and raise an eyebrow. 

“You are always alone. Where is the evil one?” She looks around and I let a little giggle out.

“I could ask the same. Where is the evil blond?” Jo’s face is lightened by the fire making her eyes glow with it.

“No idea. Lost her a while ago. I think someone spiked my drink” she says it all without a breath which causes me to laugh. 

“I think you should call it a night uh?” She lays her head in my lap.

“God my room is so far. Help me?” she looks up to me with pleading eyes.

I cave in and help her up. We walk back to the main house while she blabbers words I can’t fully comprehend, her weight supported almost completely on me making me glad for the fact that I have the strength of a wolf. We get up to her room and I put her in bed, take off her shoes and pull the blanket over her. 

“Thank you, Hope.” she smiles, her eyes practically closed.

I decide that I would, too, call it a night. I was a little tipsy myself and I had been alone at the party for the past hour. Josie has a point. I don’t usually go to those because Penelope gets drunk and disappears with someone somewhere and I just sit there.

I walk to my room, change into my pajamas and lay down, falling asleep almost immediately.

_The wind blows cold against my skin in the middle of the woods. It’s very dark and the moon itself is the only thing lighting the way. The threes make a loud noise combining with the sound of the wind. I look down at my feet and I'm barefoot standing on the cold grass. A crack noise comes from behind me making me turn almost immediately. Nothing but more darkness._

_I decide to walk in the school’s direction when I realize I have no idea where it’s at. There is not a single path that could lead me the right way. One thing comes to mind. Magic._

_“Post Tenebras Spero Lucem” I pass one hand on top of the other, a small sphere of light begins to form but disappears just as fast._

_“Come on. Post Tenebras Spero Lucem” I try again in vain. Nothing happens. Magic doesn’t work._

_The sound of the leaves on the floor starts to look like steps getting closer and closer. I begin to run. A sharp laugh comes from behind me, making me look back and trip. I shrug against a tree holding my knees protecting myself._

_A human silhouette forms amongst the trees creating shape as it comes closer. A skinny woman wearing a white dress that looks a lot like my nightgown gains a face. Her hair is messy and falling to her face. Her eyes are tired with dark circles around them, making the blue even bluer, it could swear they glowed. It seems as if she was levitating, her feet not touching the ground._

_She gets closer to me as I shrug more and more. Suddenly I can’t move. The woman is now so close we share the same air. Her breath smells like tea herbs. She looks deep into my eyes and finally breaks the silence._

_“When the second full moon reaches its peak, dark times approaches. In order to fight it, old differences must be left aside. A switch will flip. One must become three. Love shall overcome darkness, but with it bring great pain.” she says in a tremulous voice “Don’t worry dear, it’ll all be painfully clear soon”._

_I can’t notice if I’m shivering because of the woman or the cold. The lady flies up high and comes into my direction without hesitation._

I sit up in bed with a scream and meet Penelope’s worried eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

My heart is racing and my throat is scratchy from the dream. My head is spinning as I try to recover my breath. I feel Penelope’s warm hand on my arm as I look up to her.

“What happened?” she asks with a spooked look.

“I don’t- I… It was a bad dream. I think I... need some water” I get up from the bed and walk towards the door. Penelope still looks at me with a worried expression. “It’s okay, go back to sleep. I’ll be right back”.

I walk through the dark corridors lightened only by the support lights every few miles. By the end of the corridor I notice light coming from under Dr. Saltzman’s office door. I don’t know how he manages to take care of the school. It’s near 3 am and he hasn’t gone to bed yet. He was always hardworking and with me and the girls plus the whole school to look after there’s not much time left for himself. 

I stop by the door pondering if I should knock. It was just a dream, wasn’t it? If so, why does it seem so real? You know those dreams that are so real and you wake up and don’t know if it was a dream or not? This is how I feel right now. The woman’s breath, the cold wind brushing through my skin, the feeling of the wet grass on my feet. I had to be real.

I knock and a lousy voice tells me to come in. I open the door and meet Josie and Dr. S sitting across the table from each other. Both looking at me as if I had just interrupted something.

“I can come back” I say quietly.

“It’s okay. I… just had a bad dream and dad was awake” Josie says in a low and sweet voice. Sometimes I forget she is related to her sister.

“You… had a bad dream?” That’s a coincidence. 

“Uhm, yeah. It kinda scared me” She shrugged her shoulders.

I walk in closing the door behind me and sit next to Josie. “I… also had a bad dream. I came to get some water and I saw the lights on…” 

“What did you dream about?” Dr. S asks me.

“Uhm, I was in the woods and there was this woman in a white gown…” Dr. S and Josie exchange looks “she said something to me… dark times will come. Differences must be forgotten. Something about a switch.”

“One must become three. Love will overcome darkness, but will also bring great pain.” Josie completes it. 

“What?” I turn at her in surprise. How does she know?

“I think… we had the same dream” she practically whispers.

“The same dream? How is that even possible? I… it was so real and-” I strangle searching for words.

“Okay let’s calm down. So you both had the same dream. This woman… did she say anything else?” Dr. S asks switching looks between Josie and me. 

“Not to me… but I had a feeling she was a witch. What does this even mean?” I lean my head to the side.

I feel my foot itch and look down at it. It’s dirty as if I had been walking outside barefoot. I glance at Josie and she looks down at her feet as well. They are small and thin, they look very princessy. Except now they are also covered in mud. I raise my head slowly to meet her eyes that now spark fear. We both look to Dr. S for guidance. 

“Okay, uhm… Dark times.. a switch will flip. Maybe it’s about a vampire?” He asks us as he tries to calculate the words in his mind.

“I guess that makes sense. Differences must be forgotten… what differences?” I get a piece of paper and write down all the words the woman said. “She also said love will save us but cause pain…” 

“Maybe that’s what the difference refers to? In order to find love someone must leave their differences behind?” Josie asks softly.

“Could be. One must become three? Does she mean like dividing?” Sr S raises an eyebrow.

“I… think she means me” Both of them look at me simultaneously. “What else can it be?” 

“It has to be something else. I mean you are kind of two so...” Josie states. “Plus, we won’t allow it to happen. Right dad?” She throws a sharp look in Dr. S direction.

“Of course not. I… I think everything has been fine around here. There is nothing to worry about. It’s late and you two should go to bed” Dr. S shoots at us.

“But dad-” Josie attempts to respond.

“No buts. And hm… not a word about this to anyone. Not until we know if it is real or not.” He says quietly. “Now go rest.”

Josie and I accept the defeat and walk out of his office not satisfied at all. “What will we do about this?” I ask her in a whisper.

“Exactly what my dad said. Nothing.” she whispers back “Just let it go okay? Goodnight, Hope.” She walks and disappears in the darkness of the corridor. 

I go back to my room, clean my feet and lay down. What did it mean for both of us to have the same dream? Who was the woman in the dream? What did she want and how did she get in my head? Suddenly the feeling I had this morning, the weird feeling I couldn't put my hands on comes back to me. I decided I would look into it myself since none of them seem to want to help. 

______

After breakfast, everyone that is competing against the other school is called out to the field to practice. Last year we didn’t have a strong team and didn’t practice enough, so we lost shamefully. This year we actually stood a chance.

Mrs. Wilson walks up to us with her sweat pants and flappy shirt she definitely doesn’t need to wear and salutes us. “Good morning kids, we will practice all the modalities of the competition throughout the week. So please don’t be late for it or else I’ll sadly need to assign you for detention… with me” Everyone immediately gets the idea.

She is known to give the worst kind of punishment. One kid once had to be a whole week under medical care because she made him take care of poisonous plants for an entire afternoon, which she swears she didn’t know. This other kid even mentioned he had to clean her whole suite and the things he found in there. Poor kid was traumatized.

“With no further due, laps. Whoever finishes last will give me twenty push-ups. 5 laps around the field. Go” She blows her whistle and we all just start to run.

The field has around 300 yards total. The teacher watches us carefully blurring out some words of encouragement, which do not always sound like it. She knows that if she does so much as blink, the vampires will speed through the whole process and cheat their way to the end. 

“Come on Park! Straighten your posture. Josie dear will you be the one to give me the 20? Speed up!! Good Job Mikaelson, but if you don’t run blondie will pass you.” She yells as we run.

Dr. S shows up to talk to her while we run, probably saying something about the practice. He has a worried look as he talks, always glancing at us and covering his mouth so we can’t read it. I wonder if it has anything to do with our conversation last night. The dream still seems too real to me.

The boys see their opportunity and speed the next lap, which for their luck was successful and undetected. “That’s so unfair” Lizzie frowns from behind me “I can’t take it anymore”

“Lizzie, we made it through two laps. Come on. Bet I can win ya.” I tease her.

“You’re on!” she speeds up, making me follow her pace.

Dr. S soon leaves and the teacher reverts her attention back to us. “Come on people, how many laps are left?” she shouts from the other side of the field.

“Last for us!” Kaleb yells on the boy’s behalf.

“Two!” Josie says breathlessly for her and Penelope.

Lizzie and I are too busy to answer her. We race against each other and get to the teacher at the same time fighting for air. “I win!” I say puffy.

“In your dreams. I beat you with my eyes closed.” we both look at the teacher “who got here first?”

She looks at us with a disapprovement look. “Doesn’t matter! We are not competing against each other…” she takes a minute “Mikaelson got here 0.5 seconds in advance” she likes some competition. 

“HAAA!” I mock Lizzie. “Maybe next time!” she rolls her eyes and sighs.

All the others arrive moments later gasping for air and take a sip of their water bottles. After that, the teacher puts us, witches, in line and sends the boys to practice for the game. She gets what looks like the same magical blue bag that Mr. Williams had in his class. 

“I will be choosing spells. You three will attempt, and succeed, on casting them. This is one of the hardest parts of the competition.” she begins “We never know which spells will be chosen, so we practice them all.” she says matter-of-factly. “ We will practice on this Fellah” She brings up a mannequin “First up. Josie.” She picks something from the magical bag “Ignalusa”

“Oh, easy.” She looks at me “May I?” I nod and she siphons some magic from me sending tingles down my body. Josie then focuses on her hands and very firmly says “Ignalusa!”.

A small spark of fire begins to form between Josie’s hand. The fire grows becoming a flawless flaming ball. Josie brings it close to her face and blows the fire towards the mannequin. It immediately catches on fire. 

“Great job. Since we are at it… Hope, why don’t you put it out for us?” She says calmly.

I step forward, extend my arm towards the mannequin with my hand opened. “Adiuuatur” I close my hands in a fist and the fire extinguishes itself, leaving only smoke coming out of the doll.

“Bravo. Next. Lizzie. Let’s see.” she chooses another spell from the bag. “Protection spell!” she says in a hum.

“Oh okay hm… there are many of those…” Lizzie begins to talk.

“Don’t suck up Saltzman, do it” the teacher bursts with annoyance.

“Okay…” Lizzie takes a deep breath, siphons magic from the floor, and confidently says “Projectum deflecto” passing one hand through her face and then extending it forward. 

“Great, let’s see if it works. Park. You’ll be casting…” She sorts another spell “Wind torrent. Fair enough. On with it.”

Penelope stands in front of Lizzie with a mischievous smile “I hope you made it wrong” she prepares herself, puts one hand in front of the other, and turns them around “Ventus”.

A sparkly blue dust comes out of her hand and travels all the way to Lizzie, who seems to notice nothing at all. “Okay points for you both”. 

She gives us some other spells to practice, some work well and some not so much, but since she is also a witch she helps us to improve our casting. And after the longest three hours of my life she calls it a day. 

“Thank you everyone. Tomorrow we will be going through the teamwork part. I’ll see you all tomorrow” She dismisses us and we all go back inside to change in the locker room.

The locker room is quite empty since we are the only ones practicing, but usually it’s pretty crowded. They have around 5 showers, some benches facing tall lockers with the student's names and long mirrors across the walls. The walls are slightly dark which contrasts with the golden lockers and sinks. 

We all change into our uniforms and go up to the dining room to eat lunch. The room smells like baked potatoes and roasted chicken, which is served on the tables. Weirdly enough, the four of us end up sitting together and trash-talking the practice. Everyone was weirdly looking at us through the whole meal, but we all chose to ignore it.

After I'm done with all the classes of the day, I go outside to meet Dr. S at the peer for our fighting skills practice. He has been training me since I was 14 years old when I had some problems controlling my powers and he said this could help. Obviously he was right and since then I use this as my therapy.

“Ready?” he asks as I pull my hair up.

“Are you?” I tease him, raising an eyebrow.

We begin to warm up by kicking and punching towards each other, each one of us dodging as the other attacks. He calls my attention to wrong moves and I correct them and try again. I fake a punch and as he attacks back I hold his hand, which he was not prepared for, drop him to the floor and jump on top of him, mobilizing his arms. He taps on my hands three times as it is holding against his collar and the other against his neck.

“Damn you!” he laughs. “Ready to take down on that other school at the game?”

“I was born ready!” I brag. 

“You are so full of yourself!” he hisses

We continue to practice for a while more before dawn approaches and it’s too dark to even see anything outside. I notice I haven’t eaten since lunch and so direct myself straight to the full dining room to meet Penelope to have dinner. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'll try to post a new chapter every Wednesday.


	3. Chapter 3

The bell rings announcing class has begun and the full hallways empty out just as quickly as the bell stops echoing. I walk into class a little late but Mr. Williams decides to just give me a sharp look.

“Sorry” I mouth to him and he goes back to teaching.

“Well as I said last class, we will be casting our spells today. Since Miss Mikaelson seems very interested in showing up early, why don’t you go first?” he noted sarcastically.

Lizzie looks at me as if she’d strangle me and I smile guiltily. We both walk to the front of the class and get our paper. I prepare to make the spell but feel a hand on my shoulder. 

“Allow me, since you’ve done enough.” Lizzie snarls and siphons some magic, which makes my body tingle. “We got a love charm.” she focuses “Phesmatus is lucas odoray”

“Wait! Did you just say ‘odoray’??” I yell by her side.

A pale mix of green and grey dust forms on Lizzie's hand flies up, and explodes followed by a horrendous smell. It smells like a skunk just walked past the classroom. Everyone covers their nose as they let out gross sounds from the back of their throats.

“Great! Thank you, girls. Please sit” He tries to speak past the smell that soon after we sit disappears. 

Lizzie sits and pouts next to me as I cross my arms “You couldn’t have said the spell right?” I snap quietly to her.

“You couldn’t have written it correctly?” she mutters back.

The other students go to the front and cast their spells as they are called by the teacher. Most of them mess up just as badly as we did. Only two or three pairs manage to gracefully cast their spells. Most precisely Josie and Jade. After the last pair almost burnt the room he dismissed the class. 

_____

Outside, the clouds cover the sun which makes a cool breeze blow. The smell of the flowers travel with the breeze. Typical for the beginning of the spring at Mystic Falls. The threes around the school are greening with every passing day, as are the bushes and grass. 

The seven chosen students meet by the field in the afternoon to practice once again. The competition is right around the corner and we still have to practice the teamwork, which none of us are good at and is what makes us lose every time.

“Good afternoon!” Mrs. Wilson approaches us "today we will work on teamwork. You need to be all in syntony to make it work. First… let's all form a circle" we all gather around side by side making a weirdly shaped circle. "Cessabit Orbis" a bright green sphere made of magic appears floating between us "this represents your collective thoughts and emotions. Your goal is to keep it this calm green. Work together." She calmly instructs us.

The sphere dances between green and blue for a while, then shifts itself to a slight purple that soon becomes a deep pink. It glows like Christmas light. Inconsistent and yet beautiful to watch.

"Focus on your breathing. You are polluting the sphere." She advises.

"This is a waste of time" Lizzie mumbles.

"If you could concentrate we'd be done by now" Penelope hisses.

"That sure isn't helping!" Jo points out.

Done with the raising arguing, the teacher snaps her fingers, making the sphere become golden butterflies that fly up and fade slowly, which calms everyone down. 

"If you guys can't do something as simple as focus, we stand no chance." Mrs. Wilson says in disappointment. "You must leave your differences aside. Working together is a very important thing, not only for the competition but for life. We are all family here." She adds.

She takes a deep breath and walks to her old brown bag. From inside of it she pulls a grey plastic cube and directs herself to us. 

"This is what you guys will be using on Saturday. This is called Kubikun. It's a magical cubic bomb. You will need to work together in order to defuse it." She explains. "This has 4 locks. Two will work at the cube while the other two will use the magic manual to give instructions. You are allowed 2 mistakes." She continues, all of us paying close attention to it "You have 3 minutes to disarm the cube without blowing it. Are you ready?"

Me, Penelope, Jo, and Lizzie nod and decide that I'll be working on the cube with Lizzie, and Jo and Pen will be giving the instructions. The two of them grab the handbook as we take the cube. The teacher passes her hand on top of it, making it glow and reveal one lock on each side.

"You now have three minutes! Good luck!" The teacher begins the chronometer.

"Okay. We have wires. Uhm 4 of them." I inform the girls with the manual who immediately begins to search for it.

"Here! Okay… describe them!" Pen asks.

"One is kind of green…?" Lizzie answers.

"I'd say they are blue-ish…" I argue.

"This isn't blue hope! Whatever. Then there are two whites…"Lizzie continues.

"Uhm blue, white… is there any red? Or… yellow?" Jo asks in a sweet calm voice.

"No! There is one… that keeps changing colors." I explain.

"Okay when it's red, cut it!* Penelope says firmly.

"No, you will blow it! Cut the first wire." Josie says over her.

"Guys, what do we do?" Lizzie asks.

"Cut the first!" Jo affirms.

"The last!" Penelope yells.

I then go with my gut and cut the first wire and that side of the cube shuts down! "Done, next!" I say impatiently. "There are magical symbols that glow. 4 of them." They begin to look for it in the manual. "One is a T, uhm a sigma upside down…" I inform.

"Then an X with an I in the middle and a black star with ten points.." Lizzie finishes.

"Press the symbols in the correct order." Pen reads out loud. "Ok, the X. The T…. Uhm the upside-down sigma and the star!" She instructs us.

Lizzie presses them and the cube becomes green, differently from the other module, which we probably got wrong. As we turn the cube to the next module, it begins to shake in our hands and change color rapidly. It makes a deafening sound followed by an explosion sound releasing dust from the edges informing that we exceeded the time.

"Ugh come on!!" I say in frustration.

"If Penelope here had let Josie do it… We'd have a chance!" Lizzie says infuriated.

"This is not on me!! You couldn't tell blue from green!" Penelope responds.

"Girls! Listen. You need to trust each other. You need to learn how to communicate. Little homework, spend a little time together… you can find out so much you don't know." The teacher advises us. "We are done for the day. Go to your room, take a shower… try to do what I said. See you tomorrow." She put the cube back where it belongs and goes back inside.

The sun is almost set making the sky look a mix of pink and orange. The wind got much colder from the time we arrived. And under that beautiful sunset, we made a promise.

"Truce?"

"Truce!"

_____

The long tables at the dining room are mostly filled with a few spaces here and there. A low music plays in the background but is almost unhearable over the euphory of the students. With the competition coming up, everyone has a lot to be excited for. 

Penelope and I stand at the entrance door watching everyone and looking for a place to sit. In the middle of the crowd, I notice a hand raised waving at us. That hand belongs to Jo. Pen and I exchange looks before agreeing we would try this whole  _ being friends _ thing. 

We walk over to them and sit down. People around start to stare and whisper, but that ends when I give them a sharp look. I know this is unusual for us, but Mrs. Wilson has a point after all. If we want to win, we need to get over our differences. 

A strident sound strikes through the room making some students yell. Rain starts pouring outside, lightning accompanying it followed by loud thunders. I don’t remember the last time it rained here. Especially not that intensely. The wind rushes through the doors, blowing out the candles lit along the tables.

Mr. Thornet, one of the night guards from the school, rushes through the hallway straight to Dr. Saltzman's table. They exchange words as most students pay close attention. They seem to be discussing something. Mr. Thornet argues expressively, waving his hands in the air.

“What are they saying?” I ask MG

“What?” he turns to look at me.

“Listen to it. What are they saying?” I insist.

“uhm…" he hesitates but looks at them “there… was a person outside… uhm… she got in and is nowhere to be found” He looks at us.

“What? What else?” 

“He thinks the person is gone. But he isn’t sure” he repeats the old man's words.

“You have a crazy look. Why do you have a crazy look?” Lizzie notes suspiciously.

“I don’t…” I contest.

“You kinda do H” Penelope agrees.

“Okay, what if we made a spell to find the person?” I propose.

“You have to be out of your mind” Josie finally speaks up “And also, don’t we need something of them to cast it?” 

“Well, my aunt Freya taught me this spell. It’s some sort of scanning spell. All we need to do is get into your dad’s office” I add.

“You are crazy.” Lizzie states “but if it will keep us safe… I’m in” she declares. Both Josie and Penelope look at her in surprise “what? Mrs. Wilson said to trust each other and work together. No way I’m letting Hope take the win alone”

“Uhm.. thanks. I guess” I mumble.

“God fine. Let’s do it now. Dad won’t be in his office for a while.” Jo says not loving the idea and the four of us get up slowly followed by MG. 

The hallways are poorly lit and the noises of the water patting on the window echo through the house. We walk quietly till we get to Dr. S’s office door. 

“MG, stay on the lookout. Let us know if someone comes.” Lizzie asks. 

“It’s locked.” Penelope whispers trying to open the door.

Jo sighs, not fully confident in what we are doing. “Dissera Portus” and just like that the door opens. She smiles proud of herself. “Go go!” she rushes us.

“I need the record of everyone from the school. He has a book with all the names in it” I tell them. 

We all begin looking in the drawers and among the thousands of books in the room. I actually don’t know why he has so many books. Most of them are really old and dusty. Some are about mythical creatures, others about Mystic Falls history, and others are just random history books. 

“Found it!” Lizzie shouts-whisper across the room from me.

I walk to her, get the book and set it in the middle of the big carpet on the floor. “Here help me.” I extend my hands to Jo and Lizzie and soon I feel that same tingle rush down my body as they siphon my magic. They hold Penelope’s hand. “Repeat after me: Intuens inveniet hostium”

The four of us stand in a circle holding hands repeating the words over and over. The book raises some feet up in the room and begins to shuffle through the pages. It stops on one of them and takes a while to shuffle again and fall shut to the floor. We let go of each other's hands.

“So..?” Pen says and they all look at me.

“There’s no one. If there was, the book would be opened and would show us where the person is.” I explain

“Dr. Saltzman. How are you on this fine evening?” MG's squeaky voice comes from the hallway.

“Dammit. Put it back Lizzie.” I give her the book and she shoves it in a drawer. 

Dr. S walks in the room and meets the four of us. “What’s going on here?” He inspects our guilty faces.

“Nothing daddy” Lizzie assures him “We just… you know…” She looks at me.

“We wanted to… tell you… something” I glimpse at Penelope.

“That we… are…” she struggles.

“That we are ready for the competition” Jo blurts “We practiced and we will make you proud!” we all nod in agreement.

“I will be proud no matter what girls!” He smiles while hugging Jo. “You should go rest.” The four of us direct ourselves to the door “And next time, don’t use MG to stay in the lookout, he breaks too easily." He advises "Goodnight!” 

  
We all exchange looks and rush out of his office, say our goodnights and go to our rooms. Despite everything, it was the first time all of us understood each other. It was good to have a  _ squad  _ of some sort. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will feature the competition. Hope y'all like it.


	4. Chapter 4

The curtains of my room open suddenly revealing an open blue sky. I cover my face from the clarity with my blanket but feel it being pulled by the bottom edge. I peek over the covers and Penelope is standing there with a gold shirt written “Stallions” across her chest and her hair in a messy bun with a golden lace tying around it. I growl and put the pillow over my head.

“Suck it up H. Come on! Get up! We have some British fellahs to crash.” She encouraged me. 

I take a deep breath and sit up. She brings me my uniform, which is a shirt like hers but on the back it says H. Mikaelson. I’m not really excited about using it honestly, but do it for the team I guess. I get the shirt from her hand with a sigh and go into the bathroom to change. 

“This doesn’t look good.” I state walking out of the bathroom. 

“I can fix that.” She stares me down and pulls my shirt twisting it so now there is a knot on the front and it’s revealing a bit of my skin under it. It actually looks kinda good. Pen always fixes my worst clothes making them look amazing. I braid the two halves of my hair. “Now let’s eat before the other school arrives.”

The whole room downstairs is filled with golden shirts and excitement. We walk towards the rest of the competing students. I choose to drink a fresh lemonade, eat cereal, and a toast with egg. The others eat pretty much the same as me, except for Jo who went fully for fruits.

After breakfast, we all went to the field to organize the stand and the podium. The stand took place on the left side of the field, we added a mic and some sound boxes so everyone on the bleachers could hear what was being said. The podium lays right next to it with two podiums containing the medals and both trophies. 

Four baby-blue vans drive through the gates and parks on the back of the house. Everyone stops whatever they are doing to watch. The first van’s doors open and an older man leaves first wearing some sort of black robe with a CWS written in the same blue as the van. Right after him the students come out using the same robe and forming a line side by side and staring at all of us as we stare back.

Dr. Saltzman soon comes out of the house and greets the visitors friendly, inviting them in to meet the school and have something to eat. One of them eyes me up and down before following their fellow teammates.

“You know him?” Jo asks from behind me.

“Uhm, no, not really…” I answer dully.

Lizzy crosses her arms staring as the last one of them disappears through the door. We all exchange looks. The students seem tense and disciplined, very different from us. 

“Do we stand a chance?” an innocent voice that belongs to MG comes from behind us. We all turn to face him.

“Yes. Yes, we do!” Lizzie assured us determinedly. “We can do this. We practiced. We are good.” she affirms and we nod in agreement.

______

The sun shines bright as the bleachers fill up with students from both schools, making an interesting blend between blue and gold. Long white banners with nothing on them float around the field. A large sign with the scores 0 - 0 lies in front of the stage. Our team lines up on the left side as the other team does the same on the right side.

Dr. Saltzman and the other school’s principal, who we learned is called  Vardemus, stand side by side on stage exchanging a few friendly words. Once all the students took their places on the bleachers and the field, Vardemus raises his hand making appear in each white banner the logos of each school. Everyone cheers in response. 

Dr. Saltzman takes the stand and grabs the mic, ready to begin the ceremony. “ Hello everyone! We welcome today the Campbell Wizardry School from London.” The students cheer loudly “As we all know, the tournament has 6 modalities, which will be: Spell knowledge. Spellcasting. A game of wickery. Team obstacle race. And Teamwork. And combat skills. All of you trained for this for the past year. I wish you all much luck!” Everyone claps and yells from their seats. 

Varmus then walks to Dr. S and takes the mic. “Let’s make this a friendly competition, shall we? Best of luck to both schools. Let it begin!” Everyone cheers furiously.

A short woman with dark hair and a yellow dress takes her turn to use the mic. I recognize her as the school’s counselor, Emma. Most students meet her once a week for a session as they have had traumatizing experiences before coming to the school. She helps them to get over them and be their best selves. I myself visit her every other week or when I need to. 

“We will begin today with Spell knowledge.” she speaks up “I’d like to call the four contestants: Hope Mikaelson and Josette Saltzman from the Salvatore School and Carrie Adkins and Gina  Bridgeham from Campbell’s school” 

Jo and I stand up and walk to the stage followed by a tall brunette whose skin is as white as snow and a skinny ginger with long straight hair. On each Emma’s side, there is one stand with a mic in the middle and two red buttons. We position ourselves and Emma gets some cards with the questions she is about to make.

“Okay witches, It’ll be three rounds and this is how this round works: I’ll say a spell outcome and you will give me the matching spell. Any spell that has that outcome will be accepted. It’ll be five total, the pair with the most correct answers wins the round. This round is worth 10 points each correct answer.” she explains and we pay close attention “If you know the answer, hit the buzzer. You then have 10 seconds to respond, in case you don’t the other pair gets to answer.” She looks at all of us to be sure we understood the rules. “Only who buzzes it gets to answer, the pair can’t help each other. Are we ready?”

I look at Jo as she looks at me, we nod at each other and take a deep breath. Emma smiles ready to begin. 

“First spell: A spell that creates artificial light” Emma asks

I quickly hit the red button that immediately lights up our stand. “ _ Post Tenebras Spero Lucem _ ”.

“Correct!” Our score goes up to ten and Emma continues. “A spell that creates a barrier” 

Jo hits the buzzer but the other girls are faster. “Inteo” The brunette’s voice sounds angelical.

“Correct!” Emma confirms. “A spell that creates fire”.

Jo hits the buzzer with all her strength. “Ignalusa, Ignarious or Incendia.” she smiles proudly.

“Uau three! Correct!” The score is now 20 - 10. “An imitation spell”.

Me and the ginger girl hit the buzzer at the same time but her stand lights up. I let out an annoyed sigh.

“That’d be Imitantor pupulus.” She snobly says.

“Correct. Last one. Whoever gets this, wins the first round.” Emma exclaims. “A sleeping spell” 

The brunette who is wearing a white button-up shirt hits the buzzer at the same time I do, but once again her stand lights up. The crowd boo’s.

“Ad Somnum.” she says politely, with a sweet voice.

“Correct!! Campbell’s school wins the first round. 30 - 20!” She says as the students in blue cheer from the top of their lungs.

I look at Josie “This damn thing isn’t working” I growl “I totally hit it before she did!”

“It’s okay. We have two more rounds to win.” She calms me down. “We can do this” she reassures me with the sweetest voice, making me smile and nod.

“Okay, round two here we go!” A soft girly voice echoes through the field. “On this round, there’ll be only three questions. They are worth 15 points each, as they are more advanced spells.” everyone nods in agreement. “Here we go then. Name a spell that creates peace of mind”

I hit the buzzer “Papilo Lux” 

“Correct. A counterspell!” she says next.

The girl named Gina hits the buzzer. “Reboundous?” she says not that sure.

“Correct. Last one! This can determine the winner. An illusion spell!” 

The tall brunette hits the buzzer and immediately freezes. Everyone looks at her. 

“Miss Adkins we need an answer” Emma rushes her. The girl opens her mouth once, twice, but no sounds come out of it. “I’m sorry your time is up. Salvatore School?”

“Invisique!” Jo answers as if she had the answer on the tip of her tongue. 

“Correct. With that, we have 50 - 45 in Salvatore School’s favor.” She says as everyone wearing gold takes their turn to yell in our favor. 

Jo and I high-five with both hands and tie our hands together. “I told you we could do it! This is our win.” Jo says smiling through her words. I can’t help but smile back. We let go of each other’s hands and something feels weird in my stomach, I just can’t point to what exactly.

“Alright, alright.” Emma shushes everyone “We still have one more round. This is one question only round worth 20 points. Whoever gets this, wins.” She gets ready and so do we. I take a deep breath. “Name a spell that extinguishes fire.”

I hit the buzzer more times than needed and the stand lights up giving me the chance to answer.

“Hope Mikaelson.” she looks at me. I look around and everyone is staring at me. A deafening silence. I look back at everyone.

“Adiuuatur.” I quietly say.

“Correct!! The Salvatore School takes the lead with a score of 70 - 45!” She cheers. “We will have a five minutes break before the next challenge!” She turns off the mic. 

Jo and I rush to reunite with our teammates who celebrate the victory with us. Lizzie hugs Jo smiling as Pen does the same to me. The students from our scholl scream loudly at us, cheering us on. 

Not long after, I sight the same yellow dress on top of the stage. Emma graciously walks to the mic and announces that the break is now over. 

“For the second modality, I’d like to call Ellie Carlyle and Pauline Hodges. Elizabeth Saltzman and Penelope Park.” she announces and the four girls go up the stage. One of them is tall as Lizzie but her hair is dark and the other girl is short and gracious. The four of you will take turns casting the spells.” Lizzie smiles in confidence. “Each team can earn up to twenty points. One last spell will be added to that list. A spell for the pair to work on together, adding another fifteen points in their favor.” she declares.

The four girls follow Emma’s instruction to go to the middle of the field and position themselves. “Alright, Miss Carlyle, you will be casting a wind torrent spell. Whenever you’re ready.” Emma instructs.

The tall dark-haired girl takes a moment as if searching for the answer in her mind. She holds her hands nervously and presses her lips together. The crowd lies silenced as the girl receives all the looks, which appears to make her more nervous.

The girl takes a deep breath, takes a step forward “Ventus!” she moves her hands circularly conducting the wind. A blue magical dust travels towards the woods, waving the tree leaves brutally.

“Twenty points. Well done” Emma congratulates. “Miss Saltzman. Sleeping spell. Please wake Miss Park after that.” she pleads.

“Great” Penelope mumbles as she sits on a chair.

“I can do it. Just… shhh!” Lizzie responds. She raises her arms with her hand open. “Ad somnum” she closes her hand and Penelope's body relaxes completely uncounscious.

“Good job. Wake her up please.” Emma asks.

“Surgere” The girl wakes back up slowly.

“Thank you for not killing me.” She murmurs.

“Twenty points to the Salvatore School.” Emma says. “Miss Hodge, Peace of mind charm, please”

“Right” her voice trembles. She walks to her spot and takes a deep breath. She mouths something to herself and makes a movement with her hand that is so small it is nearly unnoticeable. She repeats it one more time, but nothing happens. She glances over to her teammate, who stares furiously back at her. “I-I’m sorry I can’t remember the spell. Could I try another one?” she requests quietly.

“I’m sorry dear, this is your spell.” Emma responds “Please take a seat. No points added to Campbell’s school.”

The girl walks with her head lowered to her seat and avoids at all costs looking at her teammate, who still stares at her. The bleachers burst into blabber. The tall girl argues with the short one quietly, who shrugs more and more each time. I almost feel bad for her.

“Alright, miss Park, Unsealing spell.” Emma places a box tangled in chains with a golden lock holding them together. “Whenever you are ready”

Penelope stands in front of the box “Dissera Portus” She puts her hands together and separates it right after. The lock bursts open and the chain untangles, opening the box. She smiles proudly.

“Another twenty points to the Salvatore School.” She notes it down and the score magically updates showing now 110 points to 65 in our favor.

“Now to the final spell. There is one member of your team missing. Your job is to locate them through a spell. You have 2 minutes. Whoever finds them first, wins. Good luck.” She explains and starts the clock.

“Penelope can’t remember any location spells” MG informs us as he hears them with his vampire powers.

“Lizzie knows! She used it this morning when she couldn’t find her skirt” Jo mentions.

“Let’s hope she does” I respond “keep listening!”

“Jo is right, she knows. Ahsorum, dolusantum, infidictus, or whatever.” MG repeats the girl’s words.

“It won’t work. She needs something of his to use that spell.” Jo holds her hands thinking.

“She has to remember the spell from the other night. If she does it thinking about the Raf she can do it.” I exclaim.

The two girls seem to be arguing, not getting anywhere. The other two have tried at least two spells by now, none successful. I cast a copycat spell and write down the spell on my hands with my fingers. I look up at Lizzie who is reading her own hand palm. She slowly meets my eyes and I nod almost imperceptibly. 

The tall girl turns to the other and they both hold hands and mouth words. I quickly undo the spell leaving no trace of it behind. Jo looks at me suspiciously and I try to ignore it.

“He is at the Library! Most precisely on the second row of mythical creatures.” Lizzie exclaims.

“This was the faster anyone ever got to do it.” Emma acknowledges. Congratulations Salvatore School.” The score changes to 130 to 65 over the cheering students.

____

The whole crowd cheers when Campbell School scores again during a wickery match. They are twenty points ahead of us, since we haven’t managed to score yet. Mrs. Wilson is on the side of the field yelling instructions so we at least block the other team. Lizzie calls us all and we form a circle on our side of the field.

“This is a disaster!” Lizzie began grouchy. “What is the matter with you all?”

“Lizzie they are good. It’s not our fault.” Penelope says but stops as soon as Lizzie gives her a hard look.

“Right. Hope here lost 3 catches. Josie couldn’t stop any plays so far. Kaleb keeps not being where he is supposed to. MG misses his throws..” she blurts and everyone slightly lowers their heads.

“What do you suggest?” I dare to ask.

She takes a deep breath. “Here is what will happen: Kaleb, go long. Hope, you will make the throws. MG and Rafael, block them. Jo and Penelope, you both mess up their plays, it really doesn’t matter how, remember you have powers and that they are allowed.” She raises her head like she owes the place. “Salvatore School on three.” we all place our hands on top of each other’s and raise our hands on the count of three. 

We walk to our positions and the match restarts. A dark-haired guy stares at me with deadly eyes and I notice it’s the same guy from that morning. I shake that away and concentrate on what’s about to happen. Raf gets the ball and throws it to me, I nearly let it escape my hands but I manage to grab hold of it. Looking around I see Kaleb and Penelope free and a tall guy running towards me. I throw the ball as strongly as I can towards Penelope before the guy hits me and we both fall down.

From over his shoulders, I see Penelope deviate the ball with her powers and send it Jo’s way. Jo holds it and runs forward then throws the ball at Kaleb, who speeds towards the big golden circles on the edge of the field. Lizzie desperately waves her arms and Kaleb throws the ball at her. She sees a girl coming to get the ball and on a fast move of her hands, she makes the ball invisible. The girl stops running to look for the ball, Lizzie makes it appear again, catches it and throws the ball through the golden circle, giving us ten points. 

The students wearing gold scream in our favor. We have one more play, that if done correctly can win us the match. We gather around once again, Lizzie tells us how this play will go and we position ourselves. We all exchange looks for the last time before the match begins. 

“NOW!” Lizzie yells. 

The witches make a spell and become invisible. The other team seems to be confused as the ball is yanked from them and floats on its own. I see the ball coming my way and I grab it and right after I feel a huge weight on my body, causing me to drop the ball. Once I notice I’m lying on the grass, the weight goes away and becomes a hand extended my way. A curly-headed boy is standing in front of me with a worried look and lips pressed together.

“Are you okay?” His voice is low and kinda soothing. I take his warm hands and get up.

“Thank you. Hm.. yeah I- I think I am” his eyes have a green-grey color that is not really a real color. 

On the top left side of his shirt, in a cursive letter, it reads L. Kurby. As I look back at him I notice he is the guy that has been looking at me since he arrived. Except now his look has a soft kick to it. 

“I’m Hope.” I say biting my bottom lip without noticing it.

“Landon.” He smiles.

“H, you ok?” Penelope approaches us, looking at him with a threatening look. 

“See you around” the boy named Landon curves his lips into a smile before leaving us and going back to celebrate the win with his teammates.

“H?” Penelope insists.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I give her a half-smile.

The principal from the visiting school announces that the score is now tied 130 - 130 and gives us a 10 minutes break before the last two challenges. I decide to go to the kitchen and get a granola bar to eat. I hear steps from behind me and as I turn I recognize the curly hair and green eyes boy smiling at me. I smile back and offer him a granola bar. 

  
“Are these good or are you trying to poison me into the win?” he says with a grin.

“You caught me.” I giggle back. “Why do you look at me that way?” I ask quietly looking at my granola bar, sure that my face has reddened.

“I… don’t know.” he confesses. “You just… caught my eyes” I feel my cheeks burn.

“Right.” 

He walks towards me slowly, opening his granola bar. I feel my heart beginning to jump inside my chest. He moves closer to me and I feel the shelf behind my back as I have no space behind me. I scent a lavender perfume coming from him. How is it that he was running for the past 40 minutes and still smelled so good?

He looks deeply into my eyes as if asking for permission which I give him. He leans forward and I feel his minty breath as we share the same air. He places his hand on my hips, our eyes still locked together. My heart speed-racing every second. I gently touch his face with my hands wanting to pull him closer. I feel his soft lips on mine. 

“Hope?” A sweet voice comes from the door.

“Jo…” I pull back from him faster than I thought was possible. “I’m… sorry I have to…” I tell him and rush through the door. “Jo, wait.” 

“Making friends with the other school, are we?” She looks back at me.

“It’s… It’s not like that…” I stutter.

“Sure did look like it.” I can say I felt a bit of pain in her words.

“I’m sorry…” I sigh “Please don’t tell anyone.” I beg her.

She looks at me and sighs agreeing to it and we both go back to the field to finish the competition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. Handon kinda happened. Don't worry, the next chapter might make it up for it. Hope y'all enjoy it.


	5. Chapter 5

The next challenge is the obstacle race, which consists of three parts: Climbing, running, and jumping obstacles from all heights. Kaleb, Raf, and MG prepare themselves to begin the task. First part is climbing. Raf is the one competing for it. He has 30 seconds to escalate a climbing wall and ring the bell on the top before his opponent does. 

As soon as the timer begins, Raf and the other boy begin climbing. The blond catches impulse launching himself high as Raf struggles a little further down, not being able to climb practically at all. The bell rings as the blond jumps from the top to the floor throwing his arms up in the sky as he adds ten points to his team.

“What?” Raf exclaims.

“What happened?” Kaleb asks.

“I… couldn’t move.” He complains.

I take a glimpse at the other team and they are laughing and looking at us. It’s clear that one of the witches cast some sort of spell on Raf. I call Kaleb and MG over. “They cheated.” I tell them. “Girls help me out. We need to make a protection spell on them.” The girls nod.

The four of us hold Kaleb and MG’s hand and cast a protection spell on them, so all the spells rebound to the one casting it. With that, they go back to the race as Kaleb gets ready to run. Emma instructs them to go to the woods and bring back the stone that belongs to each school. The first one to complete it wins the round.

Both of them run and disappear between the trees. Everyone keeps their eyes at the woods entrance with great expectation. Some students yell the competitors name, cheering on their behalf as the leaves dance with the wind. A figure comes out from between the trees, still too far for me to be sure who it is. As they get closer I notice Kaleb’s dark hair waving. He gives the stone to Emma, adding twenty points to our team. 150-140

The next two competitors get set to begin. The obstacles are placed on the length of the whole field, creating two similar separate lines. Each mile has a higher obstacle than the last. Emma tells them that the task is simple. They need to get to the finishing line jumping through the obstacles without touching them. For each touch, 5 points will be retrieved from the final score. 

The two of them run in the sound of Emma’s voice saying “Go!”. MG jumps the first four obstacles flawlessly, but bumps on the fifth. The other guy bumps his foot on the seventh barrier, losing 5 points as well. When MG gets to the last obstacle he stops. The high barrier is higher than he is, he knows he won’t make it without touching it, so he does the next smart thing. He takes his distance from it, runs as fast as he can, flexes his knees and launches himself up in the air. He places his hand on top of the barrier and falls on his feet on the field again, crossing the finish line first. 

The whole school bursts in cheers. Kaleb and Raf run and hold him up high in celebration. 

“Congratulations, Salvatore School. Twenty points. However, since you touched two obstacles your final score is 160 points. Campbell School lost 10 points as well, bringing the score to 160 - 130.” Emma announces. 

The sun is near to setting as the time flies by. The sun has a mixture of orange and pink in its clouds, which look like a beautiful painting. The last part is the teamwork challenge, which we were more than ready to lose. We are 30 points ahead but this is the most valuable part, worth the most points. It can totally turn this thing around. They call the witches and we all stand on both sides of the field.

The glowing cube we had previously interacted with is displayed on a table in front of us, along with its manual. Emma goes up on stage. “Okay, everyone! This is our last challenge!” Everyone screams. “Anything can happen. Are you ready??” Everyone screams even louder. “In this challenge, you witches must defuse the cube. There are 4 modules and each one of them has instructions on the manual book. Some are spells, some are more complex than that. Make sure to press the green flashing button on each side as you complete it.“ she instructs “You have 3 minutes. And they start… now!” She starts the clock.

I get the box in my hands, inspecting it. “Okay, we have ancient symbols.”

“Be more specific!” Jo says and I look at her as she looks away.

“Uhm… sorry. There are 4 symbols, probably we need to press in the correct order…” 

“Okay, describe them.” Pen asks.

“We’ve got a 'U' with an 'I' on it. The other one is a 'T' with half of upside-down 'U'.” I begin to describe them.

“Okay got it, next”

“Uhm a triangle with a circle with an 'I' and an 'I' with an 'S'… looks like a snake.” I look at them. 

“'T', triangle, snake, 'U' with the 'I'.” Jo says dryly.

Lizzie gets the cube and presses it and presses the flashing green button, as instructed by Emma. That side flashes green, signalizing we concluded it successfully.   
“Okay, this next one has scrambled words.” Lizzie informs the other two girls, who quickly turn the pages on the book. 

“Here, got it. What’s the code on top of the cube?? What? Is there a code there?” Pen asks us.

“Yeah!” I say after searching the cube “K8JH5WA” I read to them.

“Okay… If the last digit is a vowel… okay, Lizzie cast the spell: Liquefacio Orsum.” Jo tells her.

“Liquefacio Orsum” The words on the cube unscramble forming a new word. “Veritas”

“I don’t see it here.” Pen says. “It says to follow its orders.”

“Okay, but what does it mean?” I ask.

“It means truth.” She looks at me and I immediately understand it. 

We hold our looks for a few moments before the other two girls interrupt us. “So… what is this about?” Lizzi asks.

“Jo…” I quietly say as she takes a deep breath.

“I…” I shake my head to her. “Press the green button” I meet her eyes. “Do it.”

I press the button and the cube turns grey, that as we previously learned means we failed. Penelope and Lizzie stare at us as both of us break our look. 

“You missed it!” Lizzie says getting the cube from my hand. “The next one has 4 wires.”

“Right describe them” Pen tells her. I look back to meet Jo’s look.

“I’m sorry” I mouth to her and she nods in a sigh. 

“Two reds, one blue and the one that changes colors.” Lizzie explains.

“Right. Cut the color-changing wire as it hit red.” Pen instructs.

Lizzie looks carefully at it, waiting for the colors to change. When it finally becomes red she cuts it and presses the green button. The whole side of the cube becomes green once again.

“The last one… is blank.” she says in confusion.

“Let me see” I get it from her hand. I hold it with one hand and pass the other on top of it. “Revela” nothing happens.

“When you have a blank module,” Jo begins reading. “You must go back and do right what you did wrong” She looks at me.

“The module we missed.” I sigh “Fine, okay…” I think fast “I cheated on the second challenge. I gave Lizzie the spell to locate Raf. I know it’s wrong but…” 

“What?” Jo asks, surprised.

“Hope… that could cost us the whole thing” Penelope barks at me.

“I know… but nothing happened. I’m sorry… Did it work?” I ask Jo as she looks at the cube and the flashing green light is flashing.

Jo presses it and the module turns green. I let out a sigh of relief. “Come on, there is only one more.” 

Lizzie gets the cube and the blank side is now flashing multiple colors furiously. I tap on it and it stops on the red color. 

“Ok, it’s red.” I inform.

“Two must match.” Pen reads. “What?” 

“Uhm Jo and Lizzie?” I suggest “You’re twins you must match”

Josie walks over and both of them place their hand into the side of the cube. It lets out a buzzing noise, informing the match is incorrect. So we decide to try Penelope and me. We place our hands but the same noise comes out of it. Same to Liz and Pen, Pen and Jo, me and Lizzie.

“Okay, one less option.” Penelope looks at me then Josie.

I place my hand on the cube and after some hesitation, Josie places hers on top of mine. Her touch feels soft and her hand temperature matches mine. The cube takes longer than it should to give us an answer. The four of us eye it anxiously. 

“Come on. Give us something” I plead.

The cube lifts up in the sky and everyone follows it with their eyes. It begins to change the colors frantically before it lets out a check noise and then falls to the floor. We look at each other in confusion.   
“With 0.50 seconds left, the Salvatore Boarding School wins the challenge, making the score 210 against 130, which means The winner is the Salvatore School!!!” Emma cheers on the stage.

The students burst in cheer and excitement. They jump up and down in animation, before running to the field and congratulating us. This is the first time we actually won this competition. The other team pouts on the side as we all hug each other and celebrate.  
____

Later that day at the great room, the place where the chairs from morning meetings usually are became a dance floor. In the corner, Kaleb takes over the DJ station, making everyone dance to his songs. On the opposite side, a table with a punch and some other drinks are filled with students. I feel a warm hand on my shoulder.

“Hey.” I smile at Pen.

“Come with me. I got booze.” She smiles mischievously.

“How do you always manage to have booze?” I ask amusedly.

“I have my contacts, Mikaelson.” She jokes.

I follow her to an empty corner and meet Lizzie, who has her blond hair in a braid that forms a tiara and a beautiful mid-length red dress with white flowers on the collar and Josie who has a yellow top and a plain black and white skirt. I too am wearing a skirt, but mine is entirely beige and I have a white shirt, which Pen tied to the side letting a little of my skin show. In it, there are two sparkly grey arrows crossing. Next to Josie is Jade, wearing scrapped jeans and a purple shirt with a v neck. MG walks towards us with Raf. 

Penelope gets a few cups and pours a drink for all of us. She hands the cups to each one of us and raises her own. 

“To the win.” she beams.

“To the win!” We repeat her words and everyone drinks.

“What exactly is this?” Lizzie asks. “Doesn’t taste that good.”

“Don’t worry Saltzman, I don't intend to kill you.” Pen Jokes. “Today,” she adds. The blond rolls her eyes.

“Did the other school leave already?” I ask between sips.

“They did a while ago.” Raf answers me.

“Oh.” I say kinda disappointed.

We chat and drink a bit more than decide to go dance. The dance floor is so full some people created a second space for that, pushing back the tables to make more room. Most of the adults are already gone, and so are the younger students. Pen pulls me to the side.

“Here” She gives me another glass. “You look like you need it.”

“I don’t. I’m fine.” I lie.

“Yeah and I don’t know you at all.” She smirks. I surrender and drink.  
___

As the party goes on, some students gather around in a circle to play ‘spin the bottle’. Penelope and I walk to watch it and I notice Josie, Lizzie, and Jade are sitting in the circle, and so are Rafael, MG, and Kaleb, apart from some other boys and girls.

“We have to join!” Pen says excitedly.

“No, we do not” I affirm.

“Come on, H. When was the last time you had some action?” She teases. 

“I’m not remotely drunk enough for that,” I argue.

“Here,” She hands me another cup “have this.” 

I take a deep breath and get the glass from her hand. The spin the bottle already happening next to us. Kaleb spins it and its top lands on MG and the bottle on Lizzie. I swear I have never seen MG’s eyes so widely before. 

“This will be the highlight of your life, nerd” She gets closer to him, pulls him closer, and glues their lips together in a slow kiss that soon intensifies as everyone cheers around them.

MG has had a crush on Lizzie since his first day here. And I think deep down she feels something. They part from the kiss and look at each other, both looking equally dizzy. Lizzie goes back to her place and sits down. She takes the bottle and spins it again. This time the bottle lands on Josie in one end and Jade on the other.

I feel something turn in my stomach. A feeling I don’t really recognize. Jo blushes furiously as Jade moves in her direction. She pulls Josie into a hot kiss, as if she has done it before. Everyone screams, some seem kinda wowed by the fast move. She lets go slowly, untangling her hand from Josie’s hair. Josie presses her bottom lip with her teeth avoiding meeting anyone’s look. 

“Uau that was… unnecessary…” I say a little too loud and everyone looks at me.

I haven’t noticed I have been drinking through the whole thing. I’m not the strongest when it comes to alcohol. As everyone looks at me, I feel like hiding but there is nowhere to go to. I turn to look at a Pen and all she does is look nothing but satisfied.

“Do it better.” The girl hisses me.

“I would in a blink of an eye.” I sit down on the big circle of people.

“And that happened.” Pen sits next to me. “I’ll spin it.” 

She gets the bottle and spins, landing on a girl from my charms class and a guy I recognize from history. They both meet up in the middle of the circle with no hesitation. They sit back down and the bottle once again turns. It lands on Rafael and Penelope. I look at her with a smirk and move my head towards Raf. 

She gets up and they share a sensual, slow kiss. Everyone around them claps and screams at it. They take longer than the rest did, which causes the crowd to hiss them even more. Once they do part, they share a look and go back to their places. Raf gets the bottle and spins. The bottle spins and spins and slowly stops pointing both to me and Josie Saltzman. 

“Wow…” Pen says to my left. 

“Uhh… I’m not sure about this…” I lift my eyes to meet Jo’s. 

“Stop whining, Mikaelson!” Lizzie mumbles. 

I get up and walk towards Josie as she does the same. My heart beats so fast I’m almost breathless. She looks deep into my eyes as I do the same. Both of us are a little hesitant, and that’s clearly noticeable. I bite the inside of my mouth, my tongue a little wobbly from the alcohol. Jo smells like vanilla, probably from a cream she uses daily. Her hair smells citric, kind of lemony. 

I take one less look at her before I feel her thick lips brushing against my own. The world stops. There is no sound, no crowd. There’s only us there at that moment. I raise my hand to her arm placing it softly on her cold skin. Our heads turn to opposite sides, our lips fitting perfectly together. I feel her bite my bottom lip slowly and my legs don’t feel as strong anymore. None of us seem to want to part from each other.   
I feel a pull on the back of my shirt. “Dammit Mikaelson! I knew you could do better but the others play.” Penelope says mischievously from behind me.

I part from Josie and everyone is looking at us. In silence. I feel my cheeks get red and I notice Josie’s are completely red. I look at her one last time and walk back to Pen, trying to recover myself. “I have to… I’ll be right back” I walk towards the exit trembling.

I sit on the bottom of the big stairs that lead to the study hall with my head between my hands. The room is still spinning from the mixture of the kiss and the drinks Penelope gave me. The room is too loud to keep up with my thoughts. I direct myself to the table with drinks hoping to find some water. The burning feeling going down my throat warns me that that was not water.

“I think maybe you’ve had enough…” Someone pulls the glass from my hard.

“I was having that.” I turn to face Josie Saltzman and my eyes widen.

“How many of these did you even have?” She asks amusedly.

“Some…” I squint my eyes as my words come out wobblier than I first intended. Jo giggles softly. “Are we ok?” our eyes meet.

She hesitates before taking a deep breath. “As if I can stay mad at you” she singsongs low making me smile.

“Wait… Did we just…” I stop myself.

“We… kinda just did. Yeah” She laughs. “Come on, you should go rest.” She says passing her arms around mine to hold me.

“I’m fine, really! Look Penelope is right there. Why don’t we dance?” I suggest letting go of her arms and going to Penelope. 

“There you are!!” Penelope says. “How do you feel?” 

“Uhm… fine?” I laugh.

“Someone is looking at you” she points with her head to Jo. “Maybe she wants round two?”

“God Penelope… Let’s just dance okay?” I pull her to dance.

We go back to the dance floor and meet with Lizzie. The three of us dance together out of sync but having a good time. I don’t remember the last time I felt this light. Maybe when I was little? I can’t quite remember. MG and the boys join us and we all just have fun till we can no longer stand up.  
______

“What was that?” Penelope laughs.

We all gathered on the floor, one lying on the other. I have my head on Pen’s lap, who is supporting herself against a wall. Right next to her is MG cuddling Lizzie’s hair in his lap. Raf and Kaleb laugh with each other with drinks in their hands. All of us are highly buzzed by now.

“I have no idea what you are talking about!” We all laugh as MG can’t follow the conversation.

“The new girl. She practically swallowed my sister.” Lizzie mumbles between laughs.

I look up and Josie is staring at us. “Uh-oh,” Penelope mutters.

“Lizzie we should get going.” She says with annoyance.

“Oh come on Jo… lay here with us. We are talking.” Lizzie invites.

“Uhm, it’s late.” She responds.

“Come on Jo, only a little bit,” I ask sweetly. She sighs and sits down.

“What are you guys talking about?” she asks in a sigh.

“Mostly the new girl” MG as we all growl.

“Dammit MG.” I complain then glance at Jo. “It was just weird how quickly she just kissed you.” I matter-of-factly say.

“Oh…” she hums. 

“Oh?” Lizzie sits up too fast. “Spill the beans sis.” 

“There is nothing to-”

“You have kissed her before haven’t you?” Lizzie cuts her off.

The brunette opens and closes her mouth more than twice searching for words. All eyes on her. “Maybe.” she finally declares.


	6. Chapter 6

My head still pounds in the afternoon. Penelope and I decided to go downstairs and lay down in the couches near the fireplace. Even though it’s not that cold, the fireplace has burning fire coming out of it. The warmth of the fire involves me making me comfortable on the large couch. Some of the younger students are playing around with each other, while some are practicing magic on the tables set at the entrance.

Soon our peaceful moment is over. MG approaches us with the guys and Lizzie. Lizzie takes over the empty couch and throws herself on it, covering her eyes with her arm and letting a loud sigh out. Raf sits on the edge of Penelope’s couch, Kaleb takes a chair and sits near to my head and MG stands still walking around pumped.

“Hey y'all! What’s good?” He excitedly says.

“God why so much yelling?” I complain.

“He hasn’t stopped talking” Lizzie growls.

“How aren’t you dead from last night?” I cover my eyes feeling my head about to explode.

“Vampire perks. These suckers don’t hangover.” Penelope rolls her eyes “I wish I was one right now.”

We spent what seemed to be hours talking until I noticed it was dark outside and neither of us had eaten. We direct ourselves to the kitchen to get any kind of food there was. I jump and sit on the counter waiting for them to find something. Penelope goes to the fridge as the others search around as well.

“Uhm there’s… cake and some leftovers from lunch maybe…” Pen says getting the cake for herself.

“My stomach still hurts. I think I’m gonna make a sandwich” Lizzie says.

“Uh, I want one!” I look at her.

“Bread is right here.” She smirks as I roll my eyes.

“Let me make it to you guys.” MG gets the bread and knife from Lizzie and they both share a look before she smiles and joins me on the countertop.

“Hey, what are you guys up to?” Jo walks inside the kitchen followed by Jade.

She has a yellow hoodie and jeans on. Yellow suits her very well. Her hair is pushed back in a messy ponytail with a braid on each side. When I move to look at her face I notice I have been staring for longer than I should have and quickly turn my look away.

“Nothing… just eating. You?” I say tonelessly.

“Uhm nothing. We’re just… hanging.” She answers. She turns to Jade “Are you hungry? There’s cake in the fridge”

“Correction. There was a cake in the fridge.” Penelope says putting the last of it in her mouth and pulling the fork slowly, teasing Josie. “Oops” I kinda chuckle and glance at them. Jo looks back at me then looks away. 

“That’s fine. We will be back later” Both of them leave the kitchen.

____

I look at the clock on my nightstand to see it's near 11 pm and the room is quite cold. Since it's past curfew, the school is pretty quiet. I turn in bed trying to find a position to sleep and failing miserably. My head processes a million thoughts per second. I sit in my bed accepting the defeat and direct myself to the kitchen.

The school at night is pretty scary. All the lights are out except for very few of them, which barely lights up anything. As I approach the kitchen I hear whispers, so I stand near the door.

"It can't be one of our kids" the first voice says affirmingly.

"I wanna believe that! But… the path it's making is…" the second voice argues. 

"I know. It's coming our way." The third voice concludes. 

"What could be causing these deaths then? Could it be related to the girls’ dream?" The second voice speaks up after a long minute of pause.

"I don't know. But if it is indeed coming our way we need to be prepared" I recognize the voice as Dr. Saltzman. 

"Will we tell the kids? At least the older ones?" Emma questions.

"I think we should. It's the wiser thing to do." The third voice belongs to Ms. Williams, the charms teacher, and the school's librarian.

"They are kids. What am I supposed to tell them? 'Hey, so… There is something killing supernaturals and humans in Mystic Falls. No, we don't know what it is. Yes, it is coming our way'" Dr. S says ironically. 

Emma let out a breath. "We should warn them so they don't go out there unaware. Limit the time out of the gates. Cast a barrier spell around the school. And see what we do from there" she suggests. 

"Fine. That we can do. Since the younger kids don't leave, I'll only talk to the older ones in the morning." He says followed by a defeated sigh at the end. 

As I hear their steps closer to the door I rush back to my room. A million thoughts became billions as I try to process the information that I had just overheard.

My mind then goes back to that dream. To that witch and the 'prophecy'. What if it was about to begin? The deaths could mean dark times approaching. I shake the thought out of my head. It couldn't be. I won't allow it to be.

_______

The library is busier than normal during lunch, as test weeks are coming up. While everyone studies, I choose a different path. I grab as many books as I can about prophecies and witches capable of seeing the future. They are quite more usual than I thought.

There are several books on them. Some mention that their existence was noticed in the early ‘40s. Others point out they were born in 1480. But most of them tell the same tale. “ _ A coven of witches from the far south was gifted with an unwanted child, who was told to be cursed with prophecy powers by an extremist coven. The cursed child grew to be neglected by its own family and coven. Not long after the girl turned 18, she prophesied upon her coven. She promised pain, suffering, and regret for what they did to her. After that, she left and has been no longer seen.  _

_ It’s believed that Takita procreated and created a coven of her own, all with the same powers as her, but also with the same thrive for vengeance. Whoever would come across any of them, were to be cursed with a prophecy, made to destroy them from the inside out.  _

_ As magic created these powers, there is indeed a loophole. Most prophecies have one savior, as the witches can’t promise only pain.” _

The books are so interesting I end up missing the actual lunch and the class after it, only noticing it when Mrs. Jacob, a sweet old lady that takes care of the library along with Mr. Williams, touches my shoulder.

"Are you alright, dear?" She asks sweetly.

"Oh. Hi! Yes. I… I just got lost with this many stories." I reply as she scans the books from over my shoulder.

"Prophecy Witches, huh?" She notes "Why so interested in them?" She questions.

"Hm... I have to write a paper on them. Do you know anything about them?" I look hopefully at her.

"Oh yes, I do. I have encountered many when I was around your age." She smiles at the memories. "Those are not to be played with, dear. Or to be provoked" she alerts me.

"And their prophecies, are they real?" I turn to look better at her as she pulls a chair and sits down.

"Oh very real indeed. You must be really careful, dear Hope. Once a prophecy is made by one of these witches, you are cursed with it." She tells me. "You never know when or how it'll happen. But it most certainly will."

"Is there a way to decode the prophecy?" 

"Humm…” she brings her index finger to her chin while thinking. "I don’t believe so. You will know when it comes. Everyone always does." I feel my heart speed up. "But don't you worry child. No harm must come to you unless you mess with one of those witches." She smiles getting up. "Now aren't you late for class?"

The white-haired lady directs herself back to her office. I put the books back to their places and go to class.

_______

I walk into the classroom seconds before Ms. Hatherwood does. She is the fancier teacher at the school, to say the least. Her hair is always as impeccable as her choice of clothes. Today she has a magenta skirt matching a white button-up shirt and a long brownish overcoat that goes down to her knees. 

Each table has multiple ingredients in it and some sort of cauldron, all of them with labels so we can identify what they are. Dried white tea leaves, spring water, and something called opaque dragon dust. I take my seat and examine the things in front of me. 

The teacher sets her books on the table and starts writing on the board before silencing the class to begin today’s lesson. She starts telling us that there will be learning many types of potions when she is interrupted by a knock on the door. She opens it to find Josie outside, with a note on her hand. She reads it and quickly asks her to take her seats. 

“Alright, where were we? Oh right, today we will be learning about healing with magic.” her eyes shine with excitement “This is a tricky one because there is a counterspell for it. If the counter spell is used on whatever hurts you, the gel might not work.” she explains. “Now, I’ll pass on these papers with the recipe and I want each of you to create this gel” she hands the papers to a brunette student sitting by the window and instructs him to pass it on. “If you need help, don’t hesitate on calling me”

As I get my paper, I read the instructions and begin my work. I add the 4oz of water and wait for it to boil. Once it does I add 2oz of the dried leaves then mix both. The water becomes light green, as it’s supposed to. As I’m about to put the last ingredient I feel a tap on my shoulders.

“Hey, can you… help me?” Jo asks with her cauldron in her hands. “Please”

“Uhm yeah sure” I move my stuff to the side so she has some room on my table. 

I add the last ingredient to my recipe and it begins to form a gel. On each table, there is also a little container that we are supposed to fill up with the result of the recipe. And I do so before helping Jo.

“Okay guys, time is almost up. Time to finish up your gel!” Mrs. Hatherwood announces.

“Dammit, I won’t be able to finish mine.” Jo cries.

“Don’t worry. Have you boiled your water?” I look inside her cauldron.

“Uhm, yeah I have. I think. I’m awful at cooking.” She admits.

“You just need practice” I send her a warm smile. “Add the leaves.” 

She follows my instruction adding the leaves and then stirs the mixture. It slowly turns green-ish as the teacher announces the next steps. Panic crosses Josie’s face as she has never failed a lesson before. The teacher approaches our table and I quickly put my perfectly made gel in front of Josie without her even noticing it. I look at the teacher as she tries to understand why I don’t have a mixture myself.

“I… had to start over. I’m almost done.” I inform the teacher.

“The time is up Hope.” She stares at me “We need to begin the next part.”

“I’m sorry. I messed it up the first time. May I finish it?” I plead.

“Alright. I’ll grade you only if it works. Ok?”

“Yeah” I sigh as she walks away.

Josie glances at me. “Why did you do that?” 

“I… don’t know”  _ Of course I do _ . “Don’t worry. It’s all good. Pay attention to what she says for the next step okay?” She nods and I go turn back to finish the gel.

“Now,” the teacher stands on the low stage in front of the class. “You’ll make a shallow cut on your partner. Then apply the gel. Remember, this only works for shallow cuts and scrapes. Hardly ever works for bigger injuries.” She reminds us. “I’ll be walking around to see the results.”

Josie looks at me as I finish filling up my small container with the light green goo. The students are handed a pocket knife for the cut. Some choose to cut the hand, others go for the cheek or arms. Jo gets the knife hesitantly. 

“I… don’t wanna hurt you. What if it doesn’t work?” She confesses.

“I’ll heal on my own then. Want me to do it?” I offer.

“I… I got this.”

Josie comes closer to my face, the scent of vanilla make me chill entirely and my heart race a little bit. She locks her look at mine and slowly places the blade above my cheekbones. I feel a sharp pain and bite my bottom lip in a low gasp. Josie looks at me terrified but I reassure her that I’m ok. She gets the gel with her index finger and slowly applies it to my skin. Her touch feels so soft I barely feel the sting from the gel. Our eyes still locked to one another.

“It… worked” She whispers and I smile.

“I told you you could do it” I say quietly back.

“Your turn. She hands me the knife” 

My heart speeds up to the thought of the gel not working and I immediately understand her hesitance. I decide not to let it show as I bring the knife close to her skin. Her dark brown eyes sparkle as I lean closer to make my cut. I make a red line with the knife and she gasps, much like I did. 

“I’m sorry.” I shoot.

“It’s okay. Doesn’t hurt that much.” she assures me. “Go on.” I nod.

I get the gel with my middle finger and lean in closer to get a better look at it. I feel her eyes watching me carefully. I apply the green mixture gently on her skin. She closes her eyes with the sting. I watch the wound as it magically disappears. Our eyes lock once again.

“Well done Hope.” The teacher congratulates me as the bell rings and she walks away.

“Hm… I have to…” Jo looks away.

“Right… Uhm. See you around” I reply.

She nods creating space between us. She gets her bag and my gel, thanks me again and walks past the door, but not before looking at me once again. 


	7. Chapter 7

The teacher talks in front of the class but my focus is nowhere to be found. My legs shake under my desk as I watch the clock on the wall tik every second. My head seems to be screaming at me. Something is bothering me, I’m just not quite sure what. 

On P.E. I fail to make most goals at our soccer game. In history, I couldn’t get one single answer before Josie did. In Origins of the Species class, I failed to remember that wolfsbane is a thing and dipped my hand into a jar of it accidentally. By lunch I decided today is not my day at all.

“Hey are you okay, H?” Penelope startles me as I’m about to put a donut in my mouth. 

“Gosh Penelope.” I sigh “Yeah I’m fine” I lie.

“You sure? Dipping your hand in wolfsbane doesn’t really say that.” She teases.

“I’m okay, just not my day” I say grumpily.

“You’ve been like that has weeks now.” She looks at me.

Josie, MG, and Lizzie approach our lunch table and sit down. 

“I’m fine.” I reassure her.

“Is the subject how Hope's...” Lizzie mocks.

I let a growl out cutting her off. “I said I’m fine! May I eat in peace, please?” I snap.

“Sorry! Jeez.” Lizzie throws her hands up in the air. “So, are you guys ready for the tests? Cuz I am so not”

“Test week is now??” MG sounds more surprised than he should.

“Uh, duh. Why do you think we have been revising all the subjects in every class?” Pen raises an eyebrow and everyone laughs.

“Our first test is on Monday, egghead! Origin of the Species.” The blond girl reminds him.

“Crap.” he sighs “What if we made a study group?”

“Do I look like a nerd?” Lizzie rolls her eyes.

“I’m out too.” Pen states.

  
“I can help you.” Jo offers.

“Yeah! Hope, you in?” He asks and everyone looks at me.

“Uhm. I... “  _ The last thing I need is a study group. _ “I study better alone.” I stand up. “And that’s what I’m about to do now.” I begin to walk.

“What’s up with her?” I hear Lizzie ask as I walk away.

“No idea.” the brunette answers as I walk faster and can no longer hear them.

I head to the library to study or be in peace, whatever you want to call it. Mrs. Jacob sends me a warm smile as I walk past her, sweet as always. I see an empty spot near the big window on the left side of the library and as I get closer a dark-haired girl in skirts steps in front of me, touching the chair. Alyssa Chang. 

"This seat is taken, Mikaelson. Go find somewhere else" she snobly says, lifting her head. 

"Not now, Alyssa." I roll my eyes.

"What are you gonna do about it?" She teases me.

I clench my fist as I step forward towards her, ready to hit her with all I got when Rafael Waithe steps in front of her. I cringe my teeth. I was actually really looking forward to this. Alyssa Chang has always given me a hard time, but not like Lizzie has. She literally only does it because she knows I can't and won't fight back and get expelled.

"Get lost Alyssa" Rafael demands.

"Ugh, whatever. I don't want to waste time with basic witches anyway" she says as bitchy as she can and walks away.

"Everything okay?" Raf looks at me concerned.

"God, why does everyone keep asking me that?" I frown.

"Sorry I… I was just wondering," he says quietly.

"Sorry. I'm okay. I just need to study and…"

"I got it. I will get out of hair." He gives me a half-smile and walks, making me feel kind of bad. After all, he was just trying to help.

"Uh, do you…" I begin and he turns back at me "maybe wanna join me?" I suggest.

"Really? Yeah. That'd be nice." His smile grows as he takes a seat.

_____

As the night falls, I begin to feel ever more restless than I have been all day. I decide to try and wolf out in the woods. It always helps when I feel this way. I walk to Dr. Saltzman’s office and knock on the door as he tells me to come in. 

Emma is sitting across from him. Both have an expression I can't exactly read. The conversation I overheard comes to my mind immediately.  _ Were they talking about it again? How bad it actually was for them to sit and talk about it again? _ I shake the thought away.

“Hey, uh, sorry to bother. I’m feeling a bit restless, I kinda need a release” I ask him. He looks at Emma and back at me.

“Back acres. No more than fifteen minutes. It’s late.” he notes. I thank him before I go on my way.

The night is beautiful outside, the sky has no clouds so the stars are bright and the wind feels refreshing against my skin. I walk to the middle of the woods where I usually leave my clothes.

I have turned so many times by now that I barely feel my bones breaking as I become a wolf. Every time my mind goes back to when I first turned after triggering the curse. My dad's words echo through my mind. ' _ If you let it consume you whole it cannot break you. When you are done, run wild and free. I am so proud of you. _ '.

The wind against my face, the hard and cold floor beneath me help me to breathe lighter. My mind slows down as the sound of my accelerated heart muffles every single thought.

I don't know exactly how long I've been running for when I hear voices coming from somewhere. My first instinct is to follow the noise, which I do even though something tells me not to.

As I follow it I recognize the path. It's coming from the wickery field. I stop at the edge of the woods, hiding and carefully watching two figures walking on the grass. I carefully approach to get a better look. I stop behind the bleachers and a growl escapes my throat. The two figures turn around looking for the source of the noise. That's when I can clearly see who the two people are.

Jade Montgomery is the first one I recognize, she has a purple short sleeves shirt and tight jeans on, her hands holding Josie Saltzman’s, who has the other girls jacked on, probably because she felt cold from the chilling wind.

I feel a pit to my stomach and without noticing I'm right in front of the two girls, growling loudly. The terrified look on the blond's girl face is hard to miss. She steps back slowly as Josie stands in front of her looking me deep in the eyes.

Josie has never seen me as a wolf before, but something about her look told me she knew exactly who I was. Somehow that did not stop me from taking one step closer each time they took a step back. I send a deadly look to the girl in the back.

"Hope." Josie calls out firmly. 

I switch my look to the brunette who stares deep into my eyes. I let one last loud growl before running back into the woods as fast as I can to that same spot where I left my clothes.

___

I look for Josie all morning the next day, but she is nowhere to be found. She has missed two periods by now, which makes me wonder if she is ok. My hope is that she doesn’t miss her dad’s class later today. Or that she isn’t with…

“Hope!” Lizzie interrupts my thoughts. 

“Hey… uh what’s up?” the girl looks tired.

“Have you seen Jo? She didn’t come back to our room last night.” My stomach turns.

“No, I haven’t. I have been looking for her too.” I say in frustration.

  
“She is probably with the new girl.” She rolls her eyes.

“What’s with that girl anyway?” I cross my arms. Lizzie raises an eyebrow looking at me, which I simply ignore as we walk into our next class.

The bio lab smells like a mixture of sanitizer and plants. Its walls are completely white and it has about 5 balconies along it. In the back wall, there are two big windows lightening the room. The teacher writes something on the board while everyone settles down. Usually, before class, the room is very loud, as it is today. Everyone is pretty nervous about the test week.

During the test weeks, we don’t have actual classes as it is basically only tests, one followed by the other during one week and a half. We call it  _ the week of the dead _ due to us barely sleeping to study through it all and get enough grades to enjoy the following off week, when we are allowed to go home for a week and stay with our families. Well, some of us. Well, basically if you don’t get enough grades on these tests, you can’t go home and need to take extra classes and tests of the subjects you failed.

The class goes on uneventfully. About three minutes before class is over, a flying piece of paper makes its way to the teachers hand, who gently grabs it and reads what it says.

“Hope Mikaelson, Miss Tig would like to see you after class.” She announces, sets the paper down, and finishes the class.

____

I approach Emma’s office but it seems like someone is still inside. I take a seat next to the door and wait. Not much longer after, the door opens and Josie leaves, carrying her backpack. Her face carries a soft smile which falls into a flat line once she notices my presence. It feels like the time has stopped. She freezes, looking into my eyes as I look into hers. She slowly walks away from both me and Emma and looks ahead. 

“Hope?” Miss Tig calls. 

At first I don’t respond as I’m still watching Josie go. We haven’t been able to talk about what happened. Maybe that’s why Emma called me so suddenly. Maybe Josie told her what happened and now is avoiding me. I shake the thought away and look at Emma, who is wearing a sweet smile. I get up and enter her office.

The room is pretty simple, it has shelves full of books of all sorts, a light salmon curtain covering the window and two couches facing each other with a center table in the middle. On top of the table, a silver tray carries four floral teacups and a transparent teapot with a yellowish liquid inside, which I presume it’s chamomile or lemon balm tea.

Emma closes the door behind her and takes her usual spot, telling me to go ahead and take my seat as well, which I do with my arms crossed. I like having sessions, but I’m just not having a good day today and I really need to find Josie and talk to her.

“Tea?” She offers as she serves herself.

“Uh, yeah sure” I answer with a slight smile. “Uhm, why am I here? It’s not my usual appointment”.

“Right.” She serves me tea and hands me the warm teacup. “How have you been?”

“Uhm I’ve been fine” I try to sound firm.

“You were feeling restless yesterday.” She says in a calm voice. “I have received some notes from your teachers saying you’ve been… distant” She brings the cup to her lips.

“I might have had a little trouble focusing” I sighed “which is why I wolfed out yesterday”

“And is there any particular reason for that to be happening?” Emma looks at me while sipping from her tea.

“No. Maybe test week?” I sip from my tea.

“Hope, you can tell me. This is a safe space. You’ve been doing so well.” she places her teacup down. “Remember, recognize what you feel.”

I cross my arm and let out a deep sigh “I wolfed out and I’m better now”

“You need to feel it as a human, Hope. You can’t wolf out every time you feel this way. I know it helps but this is a human problem, not a wolf problem.” she pauses. “Is it about the upcoming date?” 

I feel a pit to my stomach and look away crossing my arms. I know exactly what she means. My parents' death anniversary is coming soon. “No. I made my peace with it.” I point.

  
“It doesn’t mean it still doesn’t hurt. And that’s okay.” She comforts me.

“I- I know.” I take a deep breath. “Did Josie mention something… about last night?” 

“I’m not quite sure what you mean” She leans her head.

“Yesterday I wolfed out and I heard something. When I followed the noise it was Josie and Jade on the field outside.” I look at her.

“And what happened?” 

“I uhm… approached them. I couldn’t control my wolf instincts for a moment and-” I pause. Emma’s eyes express curiosity and I notice Josie did not mention this to her. “I would have attacked Jade if Josie hadn’t stopped me.” 

“Not Josie?” she asks and I shake my head no slowly. “Uhm, have you talked to her about how you feel?”

“How I feel? Uh… I don’t  _ feel  _ anything” I don’t. “Plus, she is with Jade now, so…” I roll my eyes.

“So what is making you anxious is a crush?” Emma has a funny smile on her lips.

“Crush? What crush? There is no crush.” 

“Okay, okay! If you say so.” She throws her hands up in the air. “Look, with your parents' death anniversary coming next week, you need friends around you. Company is always good in moments like this.” I sigh and nod my head. “And try to talk to Josie, it will make you both feel better.”

We spend the next 15 minutes talking about my parents and how the upcoming date affects me and how I can control it from the inside without having to wolf out. After I left Emma’s office, I decided I would find Josie. I love all my friends but if there is one person I can go to with something like this, this is Josie. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hope you guys enjoyed it. Is there anything you would like to see happening in this week of?? I have some ideas of my own but I can try and add some suggestions. The next chapter must come out later next week.


	8. Chapter 8

After half a day in the library, unable to focus at all, I decided to take the studying back to my room. I have one of the few single rooms in the school so it is way quieter than trying to study elsewhere. I throw my stuff carelessly into my study desk in the corner of the room and throw myself on the bed. 

It’s a Sunday evening, the school should be loud with chats from people getting ready for the school to start. Instead, it’s dead quiet. With the upcoming tests, most students spent their whole weekend studying, going downstairs only for the meals. Some of them even tried study groups in the library, which was where I tried to study hoping I’d run into Josie. That never happened.

Monday morning comes fast. Students stand outside the classroom for the teacher to arrive, the nervous energy was transparent among the students. Some of them have papers in their hand and are trying to read as much as they can before the bell rings. Once it does, everyone takes a seat and the teacher gets a block of white paper from her bag and faces everyone.

She gives us a speech making it clear no cheating is allowed and that she will be watching everything closely before passing the papers around. This test is the first out of the three we have today. The teacher wishes us all good luck both on this test and on the others, reminding us of the week off that comes afterward.

The day has pretty much been about sitting, writing, getting up just to do it all over again in the following class. As the last class approaches, you can feel a bit of weight getting out of everyone’s shoulder, even though everyone looks miserable and tired. I myself have my hair in a sloppy bun and tired eyes and at the same time, I feel all my nerves pulsing inside of me.

The teacher arrives to class moments after we all do, he quiets everyone down and does exactly like the other teachers did, get a block of paper, pass it around and tell us he’ll keep the lookout for cheaters. He even mentions the test was spelled by Emma to avoid any kind of cheats.

Twenty minutes into the test I begin to feel a bit anxious. My focus is fast gone as I begin moving my legs under my desk and the pen up to my lips, biting into it. I take a deep breath in as my lungs claim for oxygen and my heartbeat races. I do my best to focus and finish the test as fast as possible. I need to blow out some steam as soon as possible.

It takes me fifteen more minutes to finish the test, leave it on Ms. Williams desk and get out of the room. I start to go straight to my room, blinking the lights as I pass through the corridor. I storm inside, change my clothes into my sportswear, and head to the gym. 

I get one of the punching bags and hang it. I put on my training gloves and start punching the bag making it swing forward and come back for the next strike. As the punching goes on, I feel something building inside of me, feeling its need to come out. I try to shake it away but the feeling is stronger than me. It makes me want to scream.

I take a few steps back from the bag, my heart pounding against my chest. I take a look around to check if someone else is there but I find no one. I take a deep breath in, clench my fists, look at the bag and extend my arm brutally.

“Dissulta!” my voice comes out a high-pitched scream, exploding the bag making the sand from inside of it create a dust curtain around the gym. 

Once the dust settled, I saw a figure coming from it walking towards me. It takes me a while to realize who it is, but the curly brunette hair and dark brown eyes meeting mine are too familiar not to notice. Josie comes closer to me, a little hesitant but trying not to let it show. With a gentle touch, she takes my hand.

“Come with me.” her voice sounds like a whisper and I follow her. 

She pulls me through a door I have never noticed before. Inside of it there are stairs, which lead to another door. The path is poorly lighted, which makes it harder to see where I’m stepping. Jo doesn’t say a word the whole way, stopping in front of the green door holding its knob. 

She opens it revealing the stars in the open sky. She walks through it and I follow her. The terrace is rather big and it has several sorts of plants, which I guess Jo takes care of. There are a few weak spots of light, so I can clearly see a bench to the side and a small fountain in the center, surrounded by plants. I don’t think that fountain has ever been on.

Josie walks in and wets some of the plants as if she did that every day and I just stand at the door entrance watching her. Once she is done, she sends me a warm look inviting me to come closer and take a seat next to her. Once I sit down, she rests her head back and takes a deep breath feeling the cool breeze brush against her face.

“What is this place?” I asked, amazed. “I didn’t even know it existed”

“I don’t even think my dad knows” She smiles “It’s like… my place. I never really brought anyone here.”

“Why did you bring me?” I look at her and lean my head to the side.

“It seemed like you could use it,” She says casually.

“I’ve been… looking for you,” I confess a few minutes after.

“I know.” She sighs. 

We both sit in silence for a few minutes. I watch the place carefully as it has Josie’s signature everywhere in small details. The sky looks calm and the moon is almost unnoticed as it is as thin as it can be, making the night even darker. The trees from the woods move with the wind which causes me to smile. There is something peaceful about it.

“How are you?” Jo breaks the silence, her eyes still closed, resting.

  
“I am… dealing.” I sigh. “There is a lot in my head”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jo asks, hesitantly.

“It’s… Emma thinks it is because of my parents’ death coming up next week.” I confess.  _ Why is it so easy to talk to Josie?  _ I think to myself.

“I’m sorry for that.” her voice is soft. “If you need anything, ever, even if it’s just to talk, I’m here for you.” Our eyes meet briefly, she smiles at me then looks away once again.

“Jo about that night, I-” I begin but I’m glad she cut me off because I have no idea how I’m gonna explain this to her.

“Hope. It’s okay. You weren’t yourself” I wish that was true.

“Except it was.” I stop myself and Jo looks at me. “Once I heard you I followed the noise and got to you. Something terrible could’ve happened if-”

“But it didn’t” She cuts me off.

“Because of you. When you said my name I snapped out of it.” I take a deep breath. “I… kind of need to tell you something… but I don’t know how to say it.” 

“You can tell me anything.” She smiles which gives me a little more courage.

"I might have… a crush on you… or had… I still can’t figure out" I blurt out and look away, regretting it as soon as the words left my mouth.

Josie seems surprised as she tries not to drop her jaw. I can feel her looking at me as she just stands there. Speechless.

"Please say something" I look back at her after a few minutes of silence.

"Since… when?" She managed to ask.

"I can't tell… but it's there… has been for a while now" I feel my heart racing.

“Hope I... “ She pauses.

“It’s okay. Just… forget it okay… I- I just…” words begin to fail me.

“I had a crush on you too…” her words come out in a long, rushed jumble, which takes a minute to understand. “And I don't think I have ever gotten over it" I shoot my head to look at her as my eyes widen. Josie’s cheek slightly turns pink.

And again, both of us sit there in complete silence. None sure what to say next. Both looking into nothing and processing what just happened. My mind goes back to the party after the competition.

“You never… said anything…" Josie, once again, breaks the silence.

"Neither have you…" I argue.

I only now notice how close we are from each other, how close our hands are from each other when I look down at them. With a slight move our hand could touch. The thought makes me smile. I raise my look to meet hers and I find them without any trouble.

I feel then something warm in my finger, her pinky brushing against mine. Her hand comes on top of mine and I turn it and interlace my fingers on hers. I look down at our hands and look back up to find her eyes once again, which lock on mine. Involuntarily we move closer together. Her thumb softly cuddling mine. She looks down at my lips and back to my eyes. I take my bottom lip between my teeth. We get so close that we share the same air. Eyes still locked in one another.

The anticipation presents itself inside me as my breath becomes shorter and my heart picks up a pace. Her warm minty breath against my face makes my whole body chill. With the slightest movement, our lips could touch, and to be honest, that’s all I can think about. But what happens next is not what I expected.

"I'm sorry I can't…" Jo says in a whisper as she backed away.

"No. I hm.. I'm sorry I…" I struggle

"I want to…” She confesses. “But Jade.." Jade. Of course. 

"Right! I… of course" We both sit there in silence. Our hands still interlaced as none of us seems to want to let go.

"I should uhm go… Lizzie might be looking for me. You can stay. Take your time…" she smiles and gets up letting go of my hand slowly and gently.

"Thank you…" I sound more disappointed than I first intended.

"Sure" she walks toward the exit.

"Uhm, Jo?." She looks back at me "Are we... okay?"

"Yeah. We are ok." she gives me a warm smile "I'll see you at dinner.”

"Yeah, see you" I smile and she walks past the door, closing it behind her.

_ Josie Saltzman has a crush on me. _

_____

The next few days go by fast. We all meet to eat but other than that, everyone is focusing on studying so we can enjoy our week. On lunch breaks, we’d make plans for the week as most people will go home and we will basically have the place to ourselves. Pen told us she’d go to Belgium to visit her mother. Kaleb would go visit his family as well and Raf would spend some time with his dad. Jo told us Jade would be off with her mother too. So it was only me, Jo, Lizzie and MG.

Friday turned out to be the most stressful for us as we have four tests along the day. After the second one, I feel my body going into the same state as it has every day. Unfocused, heart pounding, head screaming at me unable to think which makes me sure I won’t do as best as I could on the following test. 

“Hope?” I feel a gentle touch in my arm. I turn to meet Lizzie Saltzman standing there looking at me.

“Hey, Lizzie.” I hadn’t noticed how breathless I was until now.

“You don’t seem ok.” Her voice doesn’t sound like it usually does, filled with mockery. No. I’d say she is nearly… worried.

“Uh, I- I’m just… nervous with the test.” I lie.

“Is that way your magic is vibrating so high that I can feel it?” she leans her head to the side. 

“Uh…” 

“I know what you need.” She pulls me and I follow her.

“Lizzie I’m okay. We have a test in 20 minutes.” I cry.

“You are far from fine Hope. You are close to a meltdown.” She says as we approach the woods “You know that feeling inside of you? Like a balloon filling up, ready to pop at any second?”

“Maybe…” I say with a little annoyance.

  
“Well let it pop” I look at her in confusion. “Scream. As loud as you can. Let it all out” She steps behind me and gives me an encouraging smile.

I take a step forward, letting all the feelings come. My dad. My mom. The tests. Josie. I feel everything build up inside of me. I close my eyes and let out a high-pitched scream. The ground beneath me begins to shake. The sound of the trees moving its leaves echoes louder. The power leaving my hands causing all of the rocks and stones around me levitate. The weight of the world slowly lifts from my body. 

It takes me about a minute before I feel ready to seize the scream to a low hum and to a deep breath. The stones fall to the ground and the trees stop moving almost completely. I stare at the path in front of me and let a small smile grow in my mouth before turning back at Lizzie. She doesn’t say anything, which I actually appreciate and we make our way back to the school. 

“I actually feel a lot better. How did you know that would work?” I ask her on the way.

“Uhm I have trouble sometimes with my mood and magic,” she confesses. “So I find it helpful to… let it all out at once.”

“Thank you, I- I really needed that.” I smiled at her.   
  
“I know.” She smiles back and we make our way to class.

  
____

Once the bell rings announcing the last class of the day was over, cheers took over the whole school. Students throw their notes up in the air as witches turn them into mini fireworks in celebration. Some students already have their bags with them to go home soon while some will only leave in the morning. 

Pen approaches us, with her bag on her back and carrying a small suitcase behind her. “I will miss you guys.” She opens her arms to a hug, which I quickly run into. 

“We’ll miss you too.” Pen tightens the hug as I do the same before we let go. “Anything… at all… just call me okay?”   
  


“Same to you!” I smile holding her hand.

Pen hugs a few other people before going on her way along with other students who are already leaving. In a short amount of time, the school is nearly empty. Most of the remaining students gather around the fireplace in the big living room to chat and have some drinks before returning to their rooms.

I decide to go back to my room earlier and write in my journal. I sit in my bed with the notebook on my lap. It has always been therapeutic to write whenever I can’t quite understand what is going on in my head. I recall my conversation with Emma, and how she implied I have a crush on Josie. The rooftop comes to my mind. How Josie’s eyes sparkled under the moonlight, her soft touch, her smile. 

I shake the thought away. She is with Jade, she told me herself. Well, she implied it nevertheless. I feel things I’m not very used to, that confuse me and make me feel like I don’t have control. My only response to it, as always, is to hide the feeling. Put it inside a little box and let it get lost inside of me.

I can’t have a crush on Josie. Not right now. Not while she is dating someone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me a while to update. But here it is! I hope you all enjoy it. 
> 
> Thank you for the kudos and feedbacks. they are really important to me <3 
> 
> Hope yall have a Nice week


	9. Chapter 9

_ The full moon reached its peak in an open sky night. The wind blows too cold for the season and the night is too dark for the size of the moon. I’m running, my feet pushing against the cold grass. Once I get control of myself I stop trying to catch up my breath. A weird feeling takes over on my stomach as I hear the wind howl. My hearing intensifies when I notice someone approaching. _

_ I catch the first stick I see, ready to fight if needed. From behind the trees, Josie comes out on her pajamas, her hair falling to her face. Her breath is as heavy as mine. I drop the stick and run away and we meet each other on a hug, which helps my heart to slow down. We part from the hug moments later and I look at her. _

_ “Are you okay?” her hands still on mine. _

_ “I’m fine. What’s going on?” she looks around. _

_ “I have no idea. Let’s head back to school” I try to figure out which path we should take but honestly I have no idea where we are. _

_ In a blink of an eye, I feel Josie’s hand being yanked from mine. I hear a muttered scream and I quickly turn around to see where Josie is.  _

_ “You again!” I say in a whisper. _

_ That same woman with the white gown and hypnotizing blue eyes has one of her arms covering Josie’s mouth while the other crosses her stomach, holding tight. The witch’s eyes imply that she is about to do something at any second, so I stare at them ready for any sudden movement.  _

_ Josie struggles while her screams are muttered by the woman’s hand. I look around for any useful weapon, but she follows my eyes and her hands go up to Josie’s neck. My eyes widen and I meet the woman’s eyes once again. _

_   
_ _ “Let her go!” I plead as firmly as I could. _

_ “What would be the fun in that?” The witch leans her head to the side. Breathing becomes harder and harder. “What if we just… kill her?”  _

_ “NO!” I shout. _

_ “I mean, that would solve half of your anxiety problems” her lips lift up in a mockery smile. _

_ “What? What is she talking about Hope?” Josie’s eyes meet mine while the witch still holds her neck. I shift my eyes back to the witch. _

_ “Let me do this for you. Consider this a gift.” without hesitation, the witch snaps Josie’s necks. The brunette falls on the floor, her eyes shut and her neck twisted. _

_ “NOOO! JOSIE!” tears form in my eyes as a knot blocks my throat. I bring my hand to my mouth.  _

_ “There is no fighting it, Hope. You know that this is what will happen to her if you get closer.” The witch says in a murmur. _

_ I fall on my knees, crying, incapable of taking my eyes out of Josie. This is a dream. Obviously. It felt too real for me to notice it before. I raise back on my feet and throw a glare at the witch. _

_ “Let me out!” I demand. _

_ “You can’t fight the prophecy,” she replied. _

_ “I said let me out!!” I demand once again in a loud bark. The witch laughs. _

I sit up in my bed with a scream, kind of stunned and sweating. My heart beating on my throat. Once I pull myself together I feel the urge to check on Josie. I walk to her room, which is across the hall from mine, open the door slowly, and there she is, peacefully asleep. A huge weight lifts from my shoulder. She wasn’t in the dream, it wasn't shared this time. 

“Hope?” Lizzie sits in her bed looking at me.

“Hey. uh… I just… couldn’t sleep. Wanted to see if any of you were awake” I manage to say.

“I know we are friends now… but it’s two in the morning. We are not that close.” Lizzie complains in a funny, sleepy way. 

  
“Yeah sorry.” I fail to hold back a chuckle “Uh, go back to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning” I begin to close the door.

  
“Hope,” Lizzie calls and I look back at her. “If you need to talk… I suppose I can listen”.

I send her a gratified smile “Thank you. But it’s all okay.” I lie. “Sorry to wake you” I close the door and head back to my bed.

______

I opt to stay in my bedroom all morning painting and reading. There is something that always calms me down about painting. It is something that makes me feel closer to my dad in some way. My mind always goes back to the memories of us painting in the backyard table in New Orleans when I was little. 

A knock on the door brings me back to the present. “Uh, come in,” I say looking at the door. 

The door slowly opens up to reveal Josie standing there on her wickery uniform. I had forgotten MG made a whole schedule of things for us to do throughout the week. Her hair is parted in two buns with blue and yellow laces tied around it. She steps in, hesitantly.

“Hey,” Jo’s voice sounds sweet as always “you missed breakfast and the game. Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah. Everything is fine.” well that wasn’t a total lie. “I just felt like painting and staying in. How did the game go?”

“It went okay.” She pauses and smiles “Lizzie convinced MG to switch the next activity to planning our birthday party.” she giggles.

“Why does that not surprise me at all?” Both of us laugh.

“That looks really good,” Jo breaks the silence after a minute looking towards my painting.

“Oh, thank you” I look at it then back at her.

“Wonder if you will make me one of those one day” Jo’s eyes meet mine, her mouth carrying a smile.

“Maybe for your birthday? Who knows…” I let out a giggle and my smile slowly fades. 

“What’s wrong?” Josie asks with a tone of concern.

“I dreamt with it again,” I say in a quiet voice.

“The witch?” the brunette’s face twitch lightly. “I- was there. For some of it at least.”

“What?” My eyes widen “You- you saw it then”

“Uh, kinda.” She lowers her eyes. “That’s why I came to check on you” 

“Oh.” Silence fills the room once again.

Josie was there. If she was she heard everything that the witch suggested, but she didn’t say anything about it. The silence seems nearly deafening. We stay there for a while, looking around in each other’s company.

“Well, I need to go before Lizzie freaks out.” Jo finally breaks the silence and stands up. “You coming?” 

“Uh” I ponder “I’ll be down in a bit” I smile at her.

_____

When I finally decide to go down, I find everyone in the great hall and watch them from the top of the stairs. They are all sitting on the floor with many opened catalogs and divided in three groups. Lizzie is walking from one group to the other to make sure they are doing their job right. She yells with a tiny blond girl because she was texting someone while she was supposed to be choosing the balloons that best match the curtains she had chosen.

“You really need to chill, you know?” I say at Lizzie while I go down the stairs.

“Shut up Mikaelson. Are you here to help? Because if not you can go back from where you came.” The blond girl crosses her arm.

“Okay then.” I chuckle. “Best of luck.” I turn to walk.

“Hope!” Jo calls, making me turn back almost immediately. The brunette gets up and makes her way to me. “She doesn’t mean that.” she holds my wrist gently 

“Yes I did” Lizzie mumbles and goes back to the group sitting to her left.

“Come. Join me, I could use the help” She pulls me to sit where she was.

We spend the next two hours and a half choosing from minimal details to big decorations to cake flavours. By the time we were done, (and when I say done I mean for the day, as if Lizzie Saltzman would plan her birthday party in one afternoon), it was just before it got dark. Jo mentioned she was a bit tired so I invited her to go to the old mill to watch the sunset and relax a bit, which she immediately accepted.

Once we got to the old mill, we went up the stairs and sat down on the mezzanine. The view was perfect as the sky was this beautiful mixture of pink and orange. We watched the sun disappear behind the trees and the sky get darker and darker. Something about it made feel so calm and by the look on Josie’s face, she feels the same way.

“This was beautiful,” She said, carrying a smile to her face.

“Yeah, it really was.” I look at her.

“So what will we be doing tomorrow?” She asks.

  
“Doesn’t MG have a plan for tomorrow?” I giggle.

“Well, yeah” She pauses. “But I think we could do something else maybe?”

“Okay. Bold of you Saltzman” I laugh. 

“Shut up!” She rolls her eyes “So..?”

“Maybe we could go swim? Or hm… Hike?” 

“Why are you so sporty?” She mocks. “We can do both. BUT… I might die in the middle of it. Just saying”

“Why are you so dramatic?” I laugh as she pushes me playfully. “Okay okay. If you get tired I’ll carry you back. Deal?”

“Deal!”

_____

It was nearly nine in the morning when I heard a knock on my door. I quickly pull my hair into a ponytail and walk to the door. Josie is standing there once I open it, her hair tied with two buns, one on each side of her head, blue and light gray sportswear and white sneakers. Me on the other hand, fully wearing black except from my shock pink top. 

“You ready?” I smile excitedly.

“It’s so early!!” She mumbles.

“So yes then?” I giggle. “Let’s go get ourselves something to eat and get going shall we?”

Both of us go to the dining room and have some fruits and yogurt. I also make ourselves sandwiches to eat if we feel hungry during the hike and put them in my bag where I have towels and a change of clothes. 

As soon as we finish eating we get on our way. The wind is still a bit chilly but the sky is crystal clear which means soon enough it will be really hot. We make our way to the trail that ends near the waterfall. Apparently we have many things to talk about since none of us shut up the whole way. 

Once we get to our destination, the sun is very strong. Both of us settle our bags to the floor and stare at the water. The place is beautiful and because it’s far from the city, people hardly ever come here. We get out towels and put them on the floor and I start taking off my shirt to go into the water.

“You coming?” Jo’s mouth opens and closes a few times. “Jo??”

“What? Yeah! Swim! Sure!” she shoots.

“Okay…” I laugh. “Come on.” I go near the water while Josie watches.

Josie quickly takes her clothes as well, so we’re both with our tops and shorts, and joins me. We look at each other and smile.

“On three?” I suggest and Jo nods.

We hold hands and count to three before jumping into the lake on the bottom of the waterfall. The water is freezing cold at first but soon my body starts to get used to it. We swim for a bit and talk some more before we leave the water and lay under the sun and the trees on our towels.

“Yeah right,” We both laugh. “So…” I pause “hm Jade huh? That seems… serious.”

“Uh yeah,” I noticed by her voice that my question surprised her. “She is great and all”

“That’s good” I nod looking away from her.

“We don’t… have to talk about it, Hope” She says. I’m not even sure why I went there.

“I know but we should be able to talk to each other” I try to sound indifferent.

  
“It clearly bothers you” from the corner of my eyes I see her turn to look at me.

  
“It doesn’t  _ bother  _ me” I lie.

We’ve kissed, confessed feelings, and promised it would get between our friendship. I’m not going to let it do so. 

“Sure. If you say so” she sighs.

“Sorry. I- You can talk to me about anything.” I look at her “I want to be okay with it.”

“Okay. Hm so I’m gonna tell you and if you don’t want to hear it anymore, you tell me” she suggested.

“Sounds fair.”

Josie told me how they first kissed and how things in their relationship are going. Jade seems like a nice girl and seems to make Jo happy, which is highly important. But I can’t stop myself from wishing she had never come to the school so I could have a chance with Josie. Her party is coming and I’ve been wanting to ask her if I could be her date, but then there is Jade, who will probably be taking her anyway. 

“Uhm we should go back. Lunch will be out in a while and I’m quite hungry” I say while I get up and get my towel

“Shame. I could spend the day here.” Jo sighs.

“Even though the idea of it sounds amazing” I begin “Your sister would literally kill the both of us for not showing up to choose flowers or whatever.” I roll my eyes.

“Yeah.” She pauses. “Maybe only a little more? Please?” she begs.

“Fine!” I cave in and lay down next to her to watch the clouds. 

____

The next two days we mostly made guest lists, final touches for the party, the girls chose their dresses, the songs, and everything. In three days, everyone will come back to the school and everything will be back to normal. Classes, tests, homework. So we had to make the most of these days. 

Josie and I have been spending a lot of time together. She knocking on my door every morning became routine. We’d have some breakfast together and find something to do. I even started a painting of her request while I taught her how to do it. We binged tv shows, watched and sang musicals, and even watched some terror movies, which resulted in Jo not being able to sleep at night, so she came to sleep in my bed with me. 

Josie and I are hanging at the old mill, she is practicing some spells and I’m reading a book. Jo let out a loud growl and I close the book and look at her. 

  
“You okay there?” I mock her.

“I can’t get this right,” She says without looking at me “ugh I hate it.” 

“Hum... which one?” I ask, making my way to her.

“This one.” She points to a spell in one of the books opened on the big table on the corner.

“Oh that one is ea-” Jo gazes at me. “Really hard. Really. Took me ages to master it” I lie.

“Can you teach me, please?” She asks.

“Of course.” I back away from the table. “You need to change how you are saying it. In this spell conviction is the key”   
  


“Okay. Uhm.” Josie takes a deep breath. “ _ Papilo lux _ ” Nothing happens.

“Okay” I take her hands “put your hands like this” I put her hands together forming a butterfly. “Now do it”

“ _ Papilo Lux _ ” She raises her hand and a butterfly made of light comes out of her hands and flies up until it fades.

“I love that spell.” I smile watching the path it made.

  
“Thank you for teaching it to me” We both look at each other.

We lock our eyes and out of a sudden Josie closes the space between us and presses her lips against mine before pulling away quickly. My heart starts pounding.

“Uh.. this” she gestures between the two of us “is not right… right now”

“It really isn’t.” 

I don’t think twice before pulling her back against my body, locking a long kiss on her lips. She is surprised at first but it doesn’t take long until she caves into the kiss. Her lips are soft against mine. My hands holding her head while hers are on my waist. I pull away slowly.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.” We are so close her minty accelerated breath brushes through my skin.

“Don’t be” Our eyes meet once again and she gives me a weak smile. “We should go back”

“Yeah, sure.” I pull away from her. “Hm go ahead I will be right behind you”

“Are you… okay?” She asks in concern.

  
“Yeah. All good I just… could use some air.” I grab my book. “I’ll see you inside”

Before Josie can answer, I rush towards the woods, leaving her alone at the old mill.

_____

The next morning came with no knock on my door. Instead, it came only by the end of the day. Jo stormed inside, starling me while I was writing in my journal. She has her sportswear on, differently from the other day, her shirt is bright yellow, her leggings are black and her hair is up on a ponytail.

“Get up. Let’s practice” She says pumped. I fail to hold back a laugh.

“Uh… okay?” I get up and go to my wardrobe. “May I ask why?”

“Dad won’t be able to do it so I offered,” She says while she jumps up and down.

I go into the bathroom and change and we both make our way to the deck outside. Jo graciously positions herself and brings her fist to her chest. I can’t help but laugh before positioning myself. Josie surprises me with the first punch, which I almost can’t deviate. 

“Wow,” I say in surprise. She has a satisfied smile on her lips. “Okay.” I crack my neck and position myself once again. 

Surprisingly enough, Jo is really good at this. Almost as good as her dad, which makes me think she must be practicing often. Her punches are too steady for someone who hasn’t been and so is her agility. She even manages to take me down once, which she knows I’ll deny if she ever tells anyone. 

She throws one last punch at me, but I grab her fist and twist it a little, pull her closer and carefully lay her on the floor holding her arms up by her hand and her waist in between my legs. She quickly stops fighting it as both of us are breathless. So we just stay there. In that position. Eyes locked in one another. Once I notice it I let go off her hand and lay down by her side.

“You are really good at this” I admit.

  
“I know.” She brags, which makes me laugh.

“How? Why haven’t we ever practiced together?” I ask, turning my face to the side to look at her.

“Not even Lizzie knows about this,” she confesses.

“Oh!” I pause. “Hm… I- I am really happy we got closer during this week” I blurt out. 

Josie sits up and I follow her moves and look at her. “I am too.” she twitches her lips, which makes my heart race a little. “And I hope this never goes away”

“If it depends on me it never will” I assure her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked it. I'm taking a bit longer to update because work has got me busy, but I'm trying to find some time to write in between breaks. 
> 
> Next chapter might feature the twin's bday party and a bit more on the dream witch.
> 
> Once again thank you for the feedbacks and feel free to leave more. It's always good to know how you guys are liking it. <3


	10. Chapter 10

On Monday after the third period, I decided to ask Josie to be her date to her party. It would be as friends we’d still be going together. Her birthday should be completely about her and she should feel special, and I know just the right way to do it. Now I just need to ask her.

The hallway is rather crowded once I exit the classroom, but luckily Josie has a blue and gold ribbon holding her hair up today. I spot the ribbon soon enough and walk towards her, bumping into some students on the way.

“Jo! Josie! Hey!” I call.

“Hope. Hi. What’s up?” She responds gracefully.

“Hi,” I suddenly feel nervous. “Uhm so I need to ask you something” 

“Okay,” she smiles.

“Uhm” I laugh nervously “Would you-”

“Josie!!” A loud voice echoes on the hallway making both of us and some other students around turn to it. “There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Jade yells approaching Jo and taking her hand.

“Jade, hi” Jo doesn’t seem too excited

“Hi, Hope.” Jade smiles at me and looks back at Jo.

“Yeah. Hi,” I fail to hide how annoyed I am when I roll my eyes and look away with a heavy sigh.

“So Jo,” she begins, “Will you give me the honor of being your date to your birthday?” 

_ You've got to be kidding me. _

“Uh,” Jo’s eyes meet mine for a brief second before turning back to Jade “I would love that.” She smiles.

Jade quickly pulls her closer and locks a kiss on her lips. Something turns so intensely inside my stomach I suddenly feel nauseous. I turn around and direct myself towards the door that leads outside without looking back, not even when I hear Josie's muffled voice calling me. I feel a knot form on my throat as my breathing becomes heavier. When I notice I’m already at the old mill. I sit down on the porch and let the wind carry the feeling away. 

______

On Wednesday evening, just before dinner, I hear a knock on my door. I've been kind of avoiding talking to Jo because I knew she would ask me if I am okay with her going with Jade and I don't know how to answer to that.

"Come in" I put my homework away and look at the door to greet whoever it is.

Lizzie storms inside my room as if it's her own. She is carrying two dresses, each one hanging in one arm. She looks at me as if I was supposed to know what to do.

"What?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I have these two dresses and I can't pick one and well," she pauses "I still haven't asked for your opinion"

"Oh, so you want my help?" I hold back a laugh.

"You know what Mikaelson," she rolls her eyes "screw this!" She walks to the door.

"Lizzie! I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" I get up and pull her back inside. "Let me see them"

She puts both dresses on my bed and explains to me that the pink dress reminded her of her mom's dress and she felt pretty in it, but the blue one made her feel more powerful.

"The blue one" I smiled. "It's your birthday, you should feel powerful"

"Thanks" she smiled and sat on my bad, which I did not expect. "Sooo… why are you avoiding Josie?"

"I.. I'm not… avoiding" I struggle.

"Sure. Leaving when she arrives and not talking to her. It sure seems like you are not" she points out.

"I just… if I talk to her she will bring up what I wanted to ask her the other day and I just… can't" I trail off. "I also don't want to lie to her"

"Why would you?" Lizzie looks at me trying to read my expression.

"It doesn't matter" I sigh and walk back to my homework.

"You know, you don't have to do this," she says

"Do what?" I turn to face her.

"Shut me out" she has the most sincere look in her face. "We are friends, after all, right?"

I let out a sigh. "I just don't… like Jade. That's all" I pause. "There is something off about her"

"Tell me about it. But Jo seems to like her." She moves her shoulders. "They will come together to the party and all…" I turn back to my homework. "Ooooh!!!"

I look back at Lizzie. "Ooh, what?" 

"You were going to do it weren't you?" She seems proud of herself for figuring it out "You were going to ask Jo to be your date"

"What?? No, I most certainly wasn't" I say in a squicky voice. 

"After the whole week hanging out only the two of you?" She points out "Give me a break Hope"

"I just- I thought I could make it special for her, that's all" I sigh.

"Well, it's not late to do it" she smiles. "Look, I’m all for you both being together. We can get rid of plain Jane." She looks like she has a plan mapped out in her head.

"I appreciate it, but I can't" I sigh. "she seems happy and that's all I want for her, ok? So let it go"

"Okay fine" she throws her hands in the air. And gets both dresses on her arms. "If you change your mind I-"

"Lizzie. Out." I demand.

With a roll of eyes, she walks out of the room closing the door behind her. Somehow I knew that wasn't the end of that conversation. 

_______

On Friday after classes are over, I go back to my room and take a long shower. As I was about to write in my journal, Josie comes in, without even knocking first. I look at her startled as she gazes back at me. Her hair is also wet from her shower and she has her pajamas on.

“Uh, hi?” I put my journal aside and sit on the edge of the bed.

“Hi? After completely ignoring me all week you say hi?” something hurts in her voice.

“I- uhm.” She raises an eyebrow as I try to make words leave my mouth. “I’m sorry. I have been busy and…”

“Right” she cuts me off and makes her way back to the door.

“Jo wait!” I stand up. “Please.”

Josie stops facing the door as if waiting for the right words to be said, otherwise she’d just leave.

“I uhm… I’m sorry. I wasn’t fair to you.” She turns herself to face me. “I got mad”

“At me?” she asks.

“No. Not at you. More like at myself.” I take a deep breath. “On Monday I was going to ask you to be my date to your birthday, when-”

“When Jade did it first.” She brings her hand to her forehead. “And I said yes. In front of you.” 

“I got mad and tried to push you away so it would bother me less” I bite my bottom lip. 

“Why does it bother you that I’m going with her?” She asks quietly.

“You know why.” Our eyes lock for a minute. “I don’t like Jade. There is something about her-”

“Hope.” she cuts me off. “She is fine. She makes me happy and I really like her.”

I can only manage to nod. “Okay. Fine. I won’t say anything about it anymore” My words sounded angrier than they should.

“Why are you mad?” She says a bit loud.

“I’m not mad Josie!” I reply almost immediately. “I’m looking out for you”

“By telling me who I’m dating is not right for me?” She pauses and shakes her head. “Great way to do that. I shouldn’t have come”

“Why did you then?” I say but immediately regret it.

“It doesn’t matter,” she turns her face away from me. “Goodnight.”

With that, Josie leaves slamming the door behind her, leaving me alone with my anger. We have never fought or argued before. I fight all the urges to go after her to make things right. Maybe I should just get over it all. Maybe I should forget the feeling and move on. Even though I want to, something in my gut tells me there is something wrong with Jade Montgomery, and I’m gonna figure out what.

____

The music plays loudly as people dance and enjoy the party. The dance floor takes place on the right side of the room with lights flashing back and forth to the rhythm of the song. Across the room, a table holds a three-layered cake and some decoration around it. On the wall behind the cake, two long posters with beautiful pictures of the twins completed the decoration. Balloons were hanging up in the ceiling creating a beautiful pattern of colors.

I walk around trying to find one of my friends. I sight Pen and MG chatting in the corner and make my way to them. Penelope has a long and strapless dark green dress and her hair carries simple waves, while my hair is up in a ponytail and am wearing a burgundy dress with off shoulders sleeve that shows my cleavage and has a pleated long skirt. MG has a dark blue suit on and a necktie that matches one of the dresses Lizzie previously showed me.

Not long after the speakers announce Josie and Lizzie as they hold hands at the top of the stairs. MG and Jade are both at the bottom of it waiting for their respective pair. The song changes into the one Lizzie picked for her grand entrance, which Josie had no say in. The two girls slowly make their way down as everyone else applauds.

Lizzie chose to go for the blue dress that matches her eyes, which suits her very well. Her hair has braids pulling it back and waves on the edges. Josie is wearing a pale pink dress that brings out her dark hair and eyes. It’s strapless, reaches just above her ankle and it has a silver detail belt around her waist. 

Both pairs direct themselves to the dance floor to dance while people opened up a path for them and circled around the dance floor as they stand in the middle of it. A slow music starts and they start to dance something that looks like a waltz. Jade holds Josie’s hands on hers while the other one is behind Jo’s back. They seem to be whispering at each other and laughing at whatever was said. Something in my stomach turns as I look away.

As the music ends and a faster song starts playing, everyone joins the birthday girls to dance. I watch as Jo looks around as if looking for someone, but her eyes stop when it meets mine. We stand there looking at each other as the world seems to move in slow motion. She softly sketches a smile which I copy. Our stare is broken in seconds by Jade who looks at me then back at Jo. She whispers something in her ear and pulls her away from there. 

Involuntarily I follow them with my eyes as they stop in a corner not that far from me. Jade searches her pocket and pulls out a little blue velvet box and gives it to Josie. The brunette takes it in her hand and opens it amazed. Something about the pendant inside seems familiar to me. It looks really familiar.

I had noticed Josie didn’t say anything at all about my gift. It makes sense now. She has never gotten it. My blood starts to boil looking at the scene. I had to tell Josie that the present wasn’t Jade’s. But deep down I knew she wouldn’t believe me due to our fight last night. Jade looks over at me, winks, and grab Jo’s face with her hand and locks a kiss in her lips.

Unable to do anything else, I run to the bathroom to take a breath. I’ve been denying what I’m feeling for so long. Maybe out of fear to actually care for someone, to get close to anyone so they can leave me, or so I can hurt them, as I have one too many times. I wipe the tears away trying to ignore the knot formed in my stomach.

I walk over to the sink and look down at the running water. I look back to the mirror to face glowing blue eyes staring at me and a pale face matched with messy hair and a familiar white gown. A wicked smile forms in the face.

“You,” I whisper.

“Hello child.” her voice sounds croaky “I’ve heard you’ve been searching about me.” I couldn’t form words. “Why don’t you let me show you what you’ve been looking for?” 

Just like that she leaves the mirror, grabs me tightly, and pulls me back into it with her. When I open my eyes and I’m in a village I don't recognize. The two layers of small cottages form two big circles. In the middle of the smaller circle, the fire is stalling against the dry wood. It seems like it’s autumn due to the orange and brown leaves everywhere. 

I hear noises coming from the east and as they get closer I recognize them for what they are. Horses, many of them. In a matter of seconds, the village is taken over by fire and confusion. Children run to their mother for protection. Houses fall to the ground on fire. The leader of the attackers sent a look towards the son of the village’s chief who had his eyes elsewhere. 

The thin lad, in his 20’s has his eyes locked in one specific girl mounting one of the horses. The girl has pale skin and her hair is as dark as the night. The young lady has a torch in her hand, so it was very apparent that she was pregnant, about six or seven months in.

Once the father noticed it, he pulled the boy to the side but just as he was about to say something, everything faded into dust, to soon become a different painting. This time the village was bigger, near a lake and there were two fireplaces instead of one. One dead animal over each burning fire, with two men cooking them. 

Within minutes, a group of witches approached the village demanding to speak to the pregnant girl. As her father refused the contact, the witches formed a circle and casted a spell. A spell in a different language, one I did not understand. Their words sounded strong and powerful. A red magical dust arose from the middle of the circle and traveled directly towards the pregnant women.

“What have you done?” the father screamed filled with anger.

“This child will be the end of your coven.” said the oldest amongst the witches. “She will be born with the prophet curse. This curse shall not be lifted.” and just as the first time, everything faded into smoke.

Suddenly we are in a room that looks a lot like a barn. The pregnant lady’s screams echos through the house. Three ladies around her prepare themselves to bring the cursed child into the world. Shortly after all I could hear was the whine of the newborn. 

The scenery changes once again, this time taking us to an open field. A dark-haired girl sitting by herself as other kids played not far from her. The kids would look and point and whisper. The little girl gets up and walks to them, but just as she approaches, the other’s families pull them away from her. 

Dust transforms it all once again. The little girl isn’t little anymore, she is about my age. The whole coven circles round the girl, who has her arms opened and her eyes white. The wind picks up extinguishing the fire and blowing leaves around.

“For all the suffering and neglect, pain, and destruction shall come upon you. The betrayer does not carry the fault, but blood does. Blood is the beginning and the end of all and nothing is able to stop it.” the girl falls on her knees, pale and shaky. 

The prophecy witch raises her head to look at me, as if she knew I was there all this time. She picks herself up on her feet, not dropping the look not even for a second and starts to run towards me. Before I could do anything I’m back at the school’s bathroom.

“Now you know what they did to me.” she says “There’s more to the story, but you are not ready to know it yet.” I look around to be sure no one is seeing this. “I will come for you Hope Mikaelson.”

The witch starts laughing before she vanishes into nothingness, leaving me alone with my heavy breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it took me forever to write it but I wasn't in the right mind to do so. I hope you guys like it. There will be more of the party in the next chapter as well, since this in this one there wasn't much of it. 
> 
> Also, I think I might end this on chapter 15, and if yall want to I can make a part two. Lemme know what you think.
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback or comments, I love to read them. <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. I really hope you guys enjoyed it. Feel free to give any feedback you'd like. The next chapter must come along soon. xoxo


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